UNIV,  OF  CALIF.  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 


THE  DODGE  LIBRARY 

Of 

1.  EMERSON'S  ESSAYS 

First  Series 

2.  EMERSON'S  ESSAYS 

Second  Series 

3.  THE  POETRY  OF  EARTH 

A  Nature  Anthology 

4.  PARADISE  LOST 

John  Milton 

5.  THE  ESSAYS  OF  ELIA 

Charles  Lamb 

6.  THE  THOUGHTS  OF  MARCUS 

AURELIUS  ANTONINUS 

George  Long 

7.  REPRESENTATIVE  MEN 

R.  W.  Emerson 

8.  ENGLISH  TRAITS 

^?.  W.  Emerson 

9.  LAST  ESSAYS  OF  ELIA 

Charles  Lamb 

10.  PARADISE   REGAINED    AND 

MINOR  POEMS 

John  Milton 

11.  SARTOR  RESARTUS 

Thomas  Carlyle 

12.  THE  BOOK  OF  EPICTETUS 

Being  the  Enchiridion  together 
with  Chapters  from  the  Dis 
courses  and  Selected  Fragments 
of  Epictetus,  Translated  by 
Elizabeth  Carter,  Selected  and 
Arranged  hy  T.  W.  Rolleston 

further  volumes  will  be  announced  later 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 
RALPH  WALDO 
EMERSON  41  &  & 


THE  DODGE   LIBRARY 


ENGLISH 
TRAITS  * 

RALPH      WALDO 

EMERSON 


NEW  YORK  :  DODGE 
PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

220    EAST    TWENTY-THIRD    ST. 


STACK  ANNEX 


ENGLISH  TRAITS  A  j 

I.  FIRST    VISIT    TO 
ENGLAND       Page  1 

II.  V  O  Y  A  G  E      TO 

ENGLAND  17 

HI.  LAND  25 

IV.  RACE  33 

V.  ABILITY  55 

VI.  MANNERS  77 

VII.  TRUTH  87 

VIII.  CHARACTER  95 

IX.  COCKAYNE  107 

X.  WEALTH  115 

XI.  ARISTOCRACY  129 

XII.  UNIVERSITIES  149 

XIII.  RELIGION  161 

XIV.  LITERATURE  175 
XV.  THE  "TIMES"  197 

XVI.  STONEHENGE          207 

XVII.  PERSONAL  221 
XVIII.  RESULT                        227 

XIX.  SPEECH  AT  MAN 
CHESTER  235 


2058309 


CHAPTER  I.  FIRST  VISIT  TO 
ENGLAND 

I  HAVE  been  twice  in  England.  In  1833,  on 
my  return  from  a  short  tour  in  Sicily,  Italy, 
and  France,  I  crossed  from  Boulogne,  and 
landed  in  London  at  the  Tower  stairs.  It 
was  a  dark  Sunday  morning  ;  there  were  few  people 
in  the  streets  ;  and  I  remember  the  pleasure  of  that 
first  walk  on  English  ground,  with  my  companion, 
an  American  artist,  from  the  Tower  up  through 
Cheapside  and  the  Strand,  to  a  house  in  Russell 
Square,  whither  we  had  been  recommended  to  good 
chambers.  For  the  first  time  for  many  months  we 
were  forced  to  check  the  saucy  habit  of  travellers' 
criticism,  as  we  could  no  longer  speak  aloud  in  the 
streets  without  being  understood.  The  shop-signs 
spoke  our  language ;  our  country  names  were  on  the 
door-plates ;  and  the  public  and  private  buildings 
wore  a  more  native  and  wonted  front. 

Like  most  young  men  at  that  time,  I  was  much 
indebted  to  the  men  of  Edinburgh,  and  of  the  "  Edin 
burgh  Review," — to  Jeffrey,  Mackintosh,  Hallam, 
and  to  Scott,  Playfair,  and  De  Quincey ;  and  my 
narrow  and  desultory  reading  had  inspired  the  wish 
to  see  the  faces  of  three  or  four  writers, — Coleridge 
Wordsworth,  Landor,  De  Quincey,  and  the  latest 
and  strongest  contributor  to  the  critical  journals, 
Carlyle ;  and  I  suppose  if  I  had  sifted  the  reasons 
that  led  me  to  Europe,  when  I  was  ill  and  was  ad 
vised  to  travel,  it  was  mainly  the  attraction  of  these 
persons.  If  Goethe  had  been  still  living,  I  might 
have  wandered  into  Germany  also.  Besides  those 
I  have  named  (for  Scott  was  dead),  there  was  not 
in  Britain  the  man  living  whom  I  cared  to  behold 
unless  it  were  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  whom  I 
a  1 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

afterwards  saw  at  Westminster  Abbey,  at  the 
funeral  of  Wilberforce.  The  young  scholar  fancies 
it  happiness  enough  to  live  with  people  who  can 
give  an  inside  to  the  world ;  without  reflecting  that 
they  are  prisoners,  too,  of  their  own  thought,  and 
cannot  apply  themselves  to  yours.  The  conditions 
of  literary  success  are  almost  destructive  of  the  best 
social  power,  as  they  do  not  leave  that  frolic  liberty 
which  only  can  encounter  a  companion  on  the  best 
terms.  It  is  probable  you  left  some  obscure  com 
rade  at  a  tavern,  or  in  the  farms,  with  right  mother- 
wit,  and  equality  to  life,  when  you  crossed  sea  and 
land  to  play  bo-peep  with  celebrated  scribes.  I 
have,  however,  found  writers  superior  to  their 
books,  and  I  cling  to  my  first  belief,  that  a  strong 
head  will  dispose  fast  enough  of  these  impediments, 
and  give  one  the  satisfaction  of  reality,  the  sense 
of  having  been  met,  and  a  larger  horizon. 

On  looking  over  the  diary  of  my  journey  in  1833 
I  find  nothing  to  publish  in  my  memoranda  of  visits 
to  places.  But  I  have  copied  the  few  notes  I  made 
of  visits  to  persons,  as  they  respect  parties  quite  too 
good  and  too  transparent  to  the  whole  world  to 
make  it  needful  to  affect  any  prudery  of  suppression 
about  a  few  hints  of  those  bright  personalities. 

At  Florence,  chief  among  artists  I  found  Horatio 
Greenough,  the  American  sculptor.  His  face  was 
so  handsome,  and  his  person  so  well  formed,  that 
he  might  be  pardoned,  if,  as  was  alleged,  the  face  of 
his  Medora,  and  the  figure  of  a  colossal  Achilles  in 
clay,  were  idealizations  of  his  own.  Greenough  was 
a  superior  man,  ardent  and  eloquent,  and  all  his 
opinions  had  elevation  and  magnanimity.  He  be 
lieved  that  the  Greeks  had  wrought  in  schools  or 
fraternities, — the  genius  of  the  master  imparting  his 
2 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

design  to  his  friends,  and  inflaming  them  with  it, 
and  when  his  strength  was  spent,  a  new  hand,  with 
equal  heat,  continued  the  work;  and  so  by  relays, 
until  it  was  finished  in  every  part  with  equal  fire. 
This  was  necessary  in  so  refractory  a  material  as 
stone;  and  he  thought  art  would  never  prosper 
until  we  left  our  shy,  jealous  ways,  and  worked  in 
society  as  they.  All  his  thoughts  breathed  the  same 
generosity.  He  was  an  accurate  and  a  deep  man. 
He  was  a  votary  of  the  Greeks,  and  impatient  of 
Gothic  art.  His  paper  on  Architecture,  published 
in  1843,  announced  in  advance  the  leading  thoughts 
of  Mr.  Ruskin  on  the  morality  in  architecture,  not 
withstanding  the  antagonism  in  their  views  of  the 
history  of  art.  I  have  a  private  letter  from  him, — 
later,  but  respecting  the  same  period, — in  which 
he  roughly  sketches  his  own  theory  "Here  is 
my  theory  of  structure :  A  scientific  arrangement 
of  spaces  and  forms  to  functions  and  to  site ;  an 
emphasis  of  features  proportioned  to  their  gradated 
importance  in  function;  color  and  ornament  to  be 
decided  and  arranged  and  varied  by  strictly  organic 
laws,  having  a  distinct  reason  for  each  decision ; 
the  entire  and  immediate  banishment  of  all  make 
shift  and  make-believe." 

Greenough  brought  me,  through  a  commonfriend, 
an  invitation  from  Mr.  Landor,  who  lived  at  San 
Domenica  di  Fiesole.  On  the  15th  May  I  dined 
with  Mr.  Landor.  I  found  him  noble  and  courteous, 
living  in  a  cloud  of  pictures  at  his  Villa  Gherardesca, 
a  fine  house  commanding  a  beautiful  landscape.  I 
had  inferred  from  his  books,  or  magnified  from  some 
anecdotes,  an  impression  of  Achillean  wrath, — an 
untamable  petulance.  I  do  not  know  whether  the 
imputation  were  just  or  not,  but  certainly  on  this 

3 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

May  day  his  courtesy  veiled  that  haughty  mind,  and 
he  was  the  most  patient  and  gentle  of  hosts.  He 
praised  the  beautiful  cyclamen  which  grows  all 
about  Florence ;  he  admired  Washington ;  talked 
of  Wordsworth,  Byron,  Massinger,  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher.  To  be  sure,  he  is  decided  in  his  opinions, 
likes  to  surprise,  and  is  well  content  to  impress, 
if  possible,  his  English  whim  upon  the  immutable 
past.  No  great  man  ever  had  a  great  son,  if  Philip 
and  Alexander  be  not  an  exception  ;  and  Philip  he 
calls  the  greater  man.  In  art  he  loves  the  Greeks, 
and  in  sculpture,  them  only.  He  prefers  the  Venus 
to  everything  else,  and,  after  that,  the  head  of 
Alexander  in  the  gallery  here.  He  prefers  John 
of  Bologna  to  Michael  Angelo ;  in  painting,  Raf- 
faelle ;  and  shares  the  growing  taste  for  Perugino 
and  the  early  masters.  The  Greek  histories  he 
thought  the  only  good ;  and  after  them,  Voltaire's. 
I  could  not  make  him  praise  Mackintosh,  nor  my 
more  recent  friends  ;  Montaigne  very  cordially, — 
and  Gharron  also,  which  seemed  undiscriminating. 
He  thought  Degerando  indebted  to  "Lucas  on 
Happiness" and  "Lucas on  Holiness"!  He  pestered 
me  with  Southey  ;  but  who  is  Southey  ? 

He  invited  me  to  breakfast  on  Friday.  On  Friday 
I  did  not  fail  to  go,  and  this  time  with  Greenough. 
He  entertained  us  at  once  with  reciting  half  a  dozen 
hexameter  lines  of  Julius  Caesar's  ! — from  Donatus, 
he  said.  He  glorified  Lord  Chesterfield  more  than 
was  necessary,  and  undervalued  Burke,  and  under 
valued  Socrates;  designated  as  three  of  the  greatest 
of  men,  Washington,  Phocion,  and  Timoleon ;  much 
as  our  pomologists,  in  their  lists,  select  the  three  or 
the  six  best  pears  'for  a  small  orchard";  and  did 
not  even  omit  to  remark  the  similar  termination 
4 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

of  their  names.  "A  great  man,"  he  said,  "should 
make  great  sacrifices,  and  kill  his  hundred  oxen 
without  knowing  whether  they  would  be  consumed 
by  gods  and  heroes,  or  whether  the  flies  would  eat 
them."  I  had  visited  Professor  Amici,  who  had 
shown  me  his  microscopes,  magnifying  (it  was  said) 
two  thousand  diameters ;  and  I  spoke  of  the  uses 
to  which  they  were  applied.  Landor  despised  ento 
mology,  yet,  in  the  same  breath,  said,  "the  sublime 
was  in  a  grain  of  dust."  I  suppose  I  teased  him 
about  recent  writers,  but  he  professed  never  to  have 
heard  of  Herschel,  not  even  by  name.  One  room  was 
full  of  pictures,  which  he  likes  to  show,  especially 
one  piece,  standing  before  which,  he  said,  "he 
would  give  fifty  guineas  to  the  man  that  would 
swear  it  was  a  Domenichino."  I  was  more  curious 

to  see  his  library,  but  Mr.  H ,  one  of  the  guests, 

told  me  that  Mr.  Landor  gives  away  his  books, 
and  has  never  more  than  a  dozen  at  a  time  in  his 
house. 

Mr.  Landor  carries  to  its  height  the  love  of 
freak  which  the  English  delight  to  indulge,  as  if 
to  signalize  their  commanding  freedom.  He  has  a 
wonderful  brain,  despotic,  violent,  and  inexhaust 
ible,  meant  for  a  soldier,  by  what  chance*converted 
to  letters,  in  which  there  is  not  a  style  nor  a  tint 
not  known  to  him,  yet  with  an  English  appetite  for 
action  and  heroes.  The  thing  done  avails,  and  not 
what  is  said  about  it.  An  original  sentence,  a  step 
forward,  is  worth  more  than  all  the  censures. 
Landor  is  strangely  undervalued  in  England ; 
usually  ignored  ;  and  sometimes  savagely  attacked 
in  the  Reviews.  The  criticism  may  be  right,  or 
wrong,  and  is  quickly  forgotten ;  but  year  after 
year  the  scholar  must  still  go  back  to  Landor  for  a 

5 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

multitude  of  elegant  sentences — for  wisdom,  wit, 
and  indignation  that  are  unforgetable. 

From  London,  on  the  5th  August,  I  went  to 
Highgate,  and  wrote  a  note  to  Mr.  Coleridge,  re 
questing  leave  to  pay  my  respects  to  him.  It  was 
near  noon.  Mr.  Coleridge  sent  a  verbal  message, 
that  he  was  in  bed,  but  if  I  would  call  after  one 
o'clock,  he  would  see  me.  I  returned  at  one,  and 
he  appeared,  a  short,  thick  old  man,  with  bright 
blue  eyes  and  fine  clear  complexion,  leaning  on 
his  cane.  He  took  snuff  freely,  which  presently 
soiled  his  cravat  and  neat  black  suit.  He  asked 
whether  I  knew  Allston,  and  spoke  warmly  of  his 
merits  and  doings  when  he  knew  him  in  Rome ; 
what  a  master  of  the  Titianesque  he  was,  &c.  &c. 
He  spoke  of  Dr.  Channing.  It  was  an  unspeak 
able  misfortune  that  he  should  have  turned  out  a 
Unitarian  after  all.  On  this,  he  burst  into  a  declama 
tion  on  the  folly  and  ignorance  of  Unitarianism, — 
its  high  unreasonableness;  and  taking  up  Bishop 
Waterland's  book,  which  lay  on  the  table,  he  read 
with  vehemence  two  or  three  pages  written  by 
himself  in  the  fly-leaves, — passages,  too,  which,  I 
believe,  are  printed  in  the  "Aids  to  Reflection." 
When  he  stopped  to  take  breath,  I  interposed  that, 
"whilst  I  highly  valued  all  his  explanations,  I  was 
bound  to  tell  him  that  I  was  born  and  bred  a  Uni 
tarian."  "Yes,"  he  said,  "I  supposed  so;"  and 
continued  as  before.  '  It  was  a  wonder  that  after 
so  many  ages  of  unquestioning  acquiescence  in  the 
doctrine  of  St.  Paul, — the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity, 
which  was  also,  according  to  Philo  Judaeus,  the 
doctrine  of  the  Jews  before  Christ, — this  handful 
of  Priestleians  should  take  on  themselves  to  deny 
6 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

it,  &c.  &c.  He  was  very  sorry  that  Dr.  Chan- 
ning, — a  man  to  whom  he  looked  up, — no,  to  say 
that  he  looked  up  to  him  would  be  to  speak  falsely; 
but  a  man  whom  he  looked  at  with  so  much  in 
terest, — should  embrace  such  views.  When  he  saw 
Dr.  Ghanning,  he  had  hinted  to  him  that  he  was 
afraid  he  loved  Christianity  for  what  was  lovely 
and  excellent, — he  loved  the  good  in  it,  and  not 
the  true ;  and  I  tell  you,  sir,  that  I  have  known 
ten  persons  who  loved  the  good,  for  one  person 
who  loved  the  true ;  but  it  is  a  far  greater  virtue 
to  love  the  true  for  itself  alone,  than  to  love  the 
good  for  itself  alone.  He  (Coleridge)  knew  all 
about  Unitarianism  perfectly  well,  because  he  had 
once  been  a  Unitarian,  and  knew  what  quackery 
it  was.  He  had  been  called  "the  rising  star  of 
Unitarianism." '  He  went  on  denning,  or  rather 
refining :  '  The  Trinitarian  doctrine  was  realism ; 
the  idea  of  God  was  not  essential,  but  super-essen 
tial  ; '  talked  of  trinism  tetrakism,  and  much  more, 
of  which  I  only  caught  this, '  that  the  will  was  that 
by  which  a  person  is  a  person;  because,  if  one 
should  push  me  in  the  street,  and  so  I  should  force 
the  man  next  me  into  the  kennel,  I  should  at  once 
exclaim,  '  I  did  not  do  it,  sir,"  meaning  it  was  not 
my  will.'  And  this  also,  '  that  if  you  should  insist 
on  your  faith  here  in  England,  and  I  on  mine,  mine 
would  be  the  hotter  side  of  the  fagot.' 

I  took  advantage  of  a  pause  to  say  that  he  had 
many  readers  of  all  religious  opinions  in  America, 
and  I  proceeded  to  inquire  if  the  "  extract "  from 
the  "  Independent's"  pamphlet,  in  the  third  volume 
of  the  "  Friend,"  were  a  veritable  quotation.  He 
replied  that  it  was  really  taken  from  a  pamphlet  in 
his  possession,  entitled  "A  Protest  of  one  of  the 

7 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

Independents,"  or  something  to  that  effect.  I  told  him 
how  excellent  I  thought  it,  and  how  much  I  wished 
to  see  the  entire  work.  "  Yes,"  he  said,  "  the  man 
was  a  chaos  of  truths,  but  lacked  the  knowledge 
that  God  was  a  God  of  order.  Yet  the  passage 
would  no  doubt  strike  you  more  in  the  quotation 
than  in  the  original,  for  I  have  filtered  it." 

When  I  rose  to  go,  he  said,  "  I  do  not  know 
whether  you  care  about  poetry,  but  I  will  repeat 
some  verses  I  lately  made  on  my  baptismal  anni 
versary,"  and  he  recited  with  strong  emphasis, 
standing,  ten  or  twelve  lines,  beginning, 


Born  unto  God  in  Christ- 


He  inquired  where  I  had  been  travelling ;  and 
on  learning  that  I  had  been  in  Malta  and  Sicily, 
he  compared  one  island  with  the  other,  '  repeating 
what  he  had  said  to  the  Bishop  of  London  when 
he  returned  from  that  country,  that  Sicily  was  an 
excellent  school  of  political  economy ;  for,  in  any 
town  there,  it  only  needed  to  ask  what  the  govern 
ment  enacted,  and  reverse  that  to  know  what 
ought  to  be  done ;  it  was  the  most  felicitously 
opposite  legislation  to  anything  good  and  wise. 
There  were  only  three  things  which  the  govern 
ment  had  brought  into  that  garden  of  delights, 
namely,  itch,  pox,  and  famine.  Whereas,  in  Malta, 
the  force  of  law  and  mind  was  seen,  in  making 
that  barren  rock  of  semi-Saracen  inhabitants  the 
seat  of  population  and  plenty.'  Going  out,  he 
showed  me  in  the  next  apartment  a  picture  of 
Allston's  and  told  me  'that  Montague,  a  picture- 
dealer,  once  came  to  see  him,  and,  glancing  towards 
this,  said,  "  Well,  you  have  got  a  picture  !  "  thinking 
it  the  work  of  an  old  master;  afterwards,  Montague, 
8 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

still  talking  with  his  back  to  the  canvas,  put  up  his 
hand  and  touched  it,  and  exclaimed,  "  By  Heaven  ! 
this  picture  is  not  ten  years  old  : " — so  delicate  and 
skilful  was  that  man's  touch.' 

I  was  in  his  company  for  about  an  hour,  but 
find  it  impossible  to  recall  the  largest  part  of  his 
discourse,  which  was  often  like  so  many  printed 
paragraphs  in  his  book, — perhaps  the  same, — so 
readily  did  he  fall  into  certain  commonplaces.  As 
I  might  have  foreseen,  the  visit  was  rather  a  spec 
tacle  than  a  conversation,  of  no  use  beyond  the 
satisfaction  of  my  curiosity.  He  was  old  and  pre 
occupied,  and  could  not  bend  to  a  new  companion 
and  think  with  him. 

From  Edinburgh  I  went  to  the  Highlands.  On 
my  return,  I  came  from  Glasgow  to  Dumfries,  and 
being  intent  on  delivering  a  letter  which  I  had 
brought  from  Rome,  inquired  for  Graigenputtock. 
It  was  a  farm  in  Nithsdale,  in  the  parish  of  Dun- 
score,  sixteen  miles  distant.  No  public  coach  passed 
near  it,  so  I  took  a  private  carriage  from  the  inn. 
I  found  the  house  amid  desolate  heathery  hills, 
where  the  lonely  scholar  nourished  his  mighty  heart, 
Carlyle  was  a  man  from  his  youth,  an  author  who 
did  not  need  to  hide  from  his  readers,  and  as  abso 
lute  a  man  of  the  world,  unknown  and  exiled  on 
that  hill-farm,  as  if  holding  on  his  own  terms  what 
is  best  in  London.  He  was  tall  and  gaunt,  with  a 
cliff-like  brow,  self-possessed  and  holding  his  extra 
ordinary  powers  of  conversation  in  easy  command  ; 
clinging  to  his  northern  accent  with  evident  relish  ; 
full  of  lively  anecdote,  and  with  a  streaming  humor, 
which  floated  everything  he  looked  upon.  His 
talk  playfully  exalting  the  familiar  objects  put  the 

9 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

companion  at  once  into  an  acquaintance  with  his  Lars 
and  Lemurs,  and  it  was  very  pleasant  to  learn  what 
was  predestined  to  be  a  pretty  mythology.  Few 
were  the  objects  and  lonely  the  man,  "  not  a  person 
to  speak  to  within  sixteen  miles  except  the  minister 
of  Dunscore";  so  that  books  inevitably  made  his 
topics. 

He  had  names  of  his  own  for  all  the  matters 
familiar  to  his  discourse.  "  Blackwood's"  was  the 
"  sand  magazine  "  ;  "  Fraser's  "  nearer  approach  to 
possibility  of  life  was  the  "  mud  magazine " ;  a 
piece  of  road  near  by  that  marked  some  failed 
enterprise  was  the  "grave  of  the  last  sixpence." 
When  too  much  praise  of  any  genius  annoyed  him, 
he  professed  hugely  to  admire  the  talent  shown  by 
his  pig.  He  had  spent  much  time  and  contrivance 
in  confining  the  poor  beast  to  one  enclosure  in  his 
pen,  but  pig,  by  great  strokes  of  judgment,  had 
found  out  how  to  let  a  board  down  and  had  foiled 
him.  For  all  that,  he  still  thought  man  the  most 
plastic  little  fellow  in  the  planet,  and  he  liked  Nero's 
death,  "  Qualis  artifex  pereo  1 "  better  than  most  his 
tory.  He  worships  a  man  that  will  manifest  any 
truth  to  him.  At  one  time  he  had  inquired  and 
read  a  good  deal  about  America.  Landor's  prin 
ciple  was  mere  rebellion,  and  that  he  feared  was 
the  American  principle.  The  best  thing  he  knew 
of  that  country  was  that  in  it  a  man  can  have  meat 
for  his  labor.  He  had  read  in  Stewart's  book  that 
when  he  inquired  in  a  New  York  hotel  for  the 
Boots,  he  had  been  shown  across  the  street  and 
had  found  Mungo  in  his  own  house  dining  on  roast 
turkey. 

We  talked  of  books.  Plato  he  does  not  read, 
and  he  disparaged  Socrates ;  and,  when  pressed, 
10 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

persisted  in  making  Mirabeau  a  hero.  Gibbon  he 
called  the  splendid  bridge  from  the  old  world  to 
the  new.  His  own  reading  had  been  multifarious. 
"  Tristram  Shandy  "  was  one  of  his  first  books  after 
"Robinson  Crusoe,"  and  Robertson's  "America" 
an  early  favorite.  Rousseau's  "  Confessions"  had 
discovered  to  him  that  he  was  not  a  dunce  ;  and  it 
was  now  ten  years  since  he  had  learned  German, 
by  the  advice  of  a  man  who  told  him  he  would  find 
in  that  language  what  he  wanted. 

He  took  despairing  or  satirical  views  of  litera 
ture  at  this  moment ;  recounted  the  incredible  sums 
paid  in  one  year  by  the  great  booksellers  for  puffing. 
Hence  it  comes  that  no  newspaper  is  trusted  now, 
no  books  are  bought,  and  the  booksellers  are  on 
the  eve  of  bankruptcy. 

He  still  returned  to  English  pauperism,  the 
crowded  country,  the  selfish  abdication  by  public 
men  of  all  that  public  persons  should  perform. 
'  Government  should  direct  poor  men  what  to  do. 
Poor  Irish  folk  come  wandering  over  these  moors. 
My  dame  makes  it  a  rule  to  give  to  every  son  of 
Adam  bread  to  eat,  and  supplies  his  wants  to  the 
next  house.  But  here  are  thousands  of  acres  which 
might  give  them  all  meat,  and  nobody  to  bid  these 
poor  Irish  go  to  the  moor  and  till  it.  They  burned 
the  stacks,  and  so  found  a  way  to  force  the  rich 
people  to  attend  to  them.' 

We  went  out  to  walk  over  long  hills,  and  looked 
at  CrifFel,  then  without  his  cap,  and  down  into 
Wordsworth's  country.  There  we  sat  down,  and 
talked  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  It  was  not 
Carlyle's  fault  that  we  talked  on  that  topic,  for  he 
had  the  natural  disinclination  of  every  nimble  spirit 
to  bruise  itself  against  walls,  and  did  not  like  to 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

place  himself  where  no  step  can  be  taken.  But  he 
was  honest  and  true,  and  cognizant  of  the  subtile 
links  that  bind  ages  together,  and  saw  how  every 
event  affects  all  the  future.  '  Christ  died  on  the 
tree  :  that  built  Dunscore  kirk  yonder  :  that  brought 
you  and  me  together.  Time  has  only  a  relative 
existence.' 

He  was  already  turning  his  eyes  towards  London 
with  a  scholar's  appreciation.  London  is  the  heart 
of  the  world,  he  said,  wonderful  only  from  the  mass 
of  human  beings.  He  liked  the  huge  machine.  Each 
keeps  its  own  round.  The  baker's  boy  brings  muffins 
to  the  window  at  a  fixed  hour  every  day,  and  that 
is  all  the  Londoner  knows  or  wishes  to  know  on 
the  subject.  But  it  turned  out  good  men.  He  named 
certain  individuals,  especially  one  man  of  letters, 
his  friend,  the  best  mind  he  knew,  whom  London 
had  well  served. 

On  the  28th  August,  I  went  to  Rydal  Mount,  to 
pay  my  respects  to  Mr.  Wordsworth.  His  daughters 
called  in  their  father,  a  plain,  elderly,  white-haired 
man,  not  prepossessing,  and  disfigured  by  green 
goggles.  He  sat  down  and  talked  with  great  sim 
plicity.  He  had  just  returned  from  a  journey.  His 
health  was  good,  but  he  had  broken  a  tooth  by  a 
fall,  when  walking  with  two  lawyers,  and  had  said 
that  he  was  glad  it  did  not  happen  forty  years  ago; 
whereupon  they  had  praised  his  philosophy. 

He  had  much  to  say  of  America,  the  more  that 
it  gave  occasion  for  his  favorite  topic, — that  society 
is  being  enlightened  by  a  superficial  tuition,  out  of 
all  proportion  to  its  being  restrained  by  moral  cul 
ture.  Schools  do  no  good.  Tuition  is  not  education. 
He  thinks  more  of  the  education  of  circumstances 
12 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

than  of  tuition.  "Pis  not  question  whether  there 
are  offences  of  which  the  law  takes  cognizance,  but 
whether  there  are  offences  of  which  the  law  does 
not  take  cognizance.  Sin  is  what  he  fears,  and  how 
society  is  to  escape  without  gravest  mischiefs  from 
this  source — ?  He  has  even  said,  what  seemed  a 
paradox,  that  they  needed  a  civil  war  in  America, 
to  teach  the  necessity  of  knitting  the  social  ties 
stronger.  'There  may  be,'  he  said,  'in  America 
some  vulgarity  in  manner,  but  that's  not  important. 
That  conies  of  the  pioneer  state  of  things.  But  I 
fear  they  are  too  much  given  to  the  making  of 
money ;  and  secondly  to  politics ;  that  they  make 
political  distinction  the  end,  and  not  the  means. 
And  I  fear  they  lack  a  class  of  men  of  leisure, — in 
short,  of  gentlemen, — to  give  a  tone  of  honor  to 
the  community.  I  am  told  that  things  are  boasted 
of  in  the  second  class  of  society  there,  which,  in 
England, — God  knows,  are  done  in  England  every 
day, — but  would  never  be  spoken  of.  In  America 
I  wish  to  know  not  how  many  churches  or  schools, 
but  what  newspapers  ?  My  friend,  Colonel  Hamilton, 
at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  who  was  a  year  in  America, 
assures  me  that  the  newspapers  are  atrocious,  and 
accuse  members  of  Congress  of  stealing  spoons ! ' 
He  was  against  taking  off  the  tax  on  newspapers 
in  England  which  the  reformers  represent  as  a  tax 
upon  knowledge,  for  this  reason,  that  they  would 
be  inundated  with  base  prints.  He  said,  he  talked 
on  political  aspects,  for  he  wished  to  impress  on 
me  and  all  good  Americans  to  cultivate  the  moral, 
the  conservative,  &c.  &c.,  and  never  to  call  into 
action  the  physical  strength  of  the  people,  as  had 
just  now  been  done  in  England  in  the  Reform  Bill, — 
a  thing  prophesied  by  Delolme,  He  alluded  once 

13 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

or  twice  to  his  conversation  with  Dr.  Charming, 
who  had  recently  visited  him  (laying  his  hand  on  a 
particular  chair  in  which  the  Doctor  had  sat). 

The  conversation  turned  on  books.  Lucretius 
he  esteems  a  far  higher  poet  than  Virgil :  not  in 
his  system,  which  is  nothing,  but  in  his  power  of 
illustration.  Faith  is  necessary  to  explain  anything, 
and  to  reconcile  the  foreknowledge  of  God  with 
human  evil.  Of  Cousin  (whose  lectures  we  had  all 
been  reading  in  Boston),  he  knew  only  the  name. 

I  inquired  if  he  had  read  Carlyle's  critical  articles 
and  translations.  He  said  he  thought  him  some 
times  insane.  He  proceeded  to  abuse  Goethe's 
"Wilhelm  Meister"  heartily.  It  was  full  of  all  man 
ner  of  fornication.  It  was  like  the  crossing  of  flies 
in  the  air.  He  had  never  gone  farther  than  the  first 
part ;  so  disgusted  was  he  that  he  threw  the  book 
across  the  room.  I  deprecated  this  wrath,  and  said 
what  I  could  for  the  better  parts  of  the  book ;  and 
he  courteously  promised  to  look  at  it  again.  Carlyle, 
he  said,  wrote  most  obscurely.  He  was  clever  and 
deep,  but  he  defied  the  sympathies  of  everybody. 
Even  Mr.  Coleridge  wrote  more  clearly,  though  he 
had  always  wished  Coleridge  would  write  more  to 
be  understood.  He  led  me  out  into  his  garden,  and 
showed  me  the  gravel  walk  in  which  thousands  of 
his  lines  were  composed.  His  eyes  are  much  in 
flamed.  This  is  no  loss,  except  for  reading,  because 
he  never  writes  prose,  and  of  poetry  he  carries  even 
hundreds  of  lines  in  his  head  before  writing  them. 
lie  had  just  returned  from  a  visit  to  Staffa,  and 
within  three  days  had  made  three  sonnets  on 
Fingal's  Cave,  and  was  composing  a  fourth  when 
he  was  called  in  to  see  me.  He  said,  "  If  you  are 
interested  in  my  verses,  perhaps  you  will  like  to 
14 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

hear  these  lines."  I  gladly  assented ;  and  he  recol 
lected  himself  for  a  few  moments,  and  then  stood 
forth  and  repeated,  one  after  the  other,  the  three 
entire  sonnets  with  great  animation.  I  fancied  the 
second  and  third  more  beautiful  than  his  poems  are 
wont  to  be.  The  third  is  addressed  to  the  flowers, 
which,  he  said,  especially  the  oxeye  daisy,  are  very 
abundant  on  the  top  of  the  rock.  The  second  alludes 
to  the  name  of  the  cave,  which  is  "Cave  of  Music"; 
the  first  to  the  circumstance  of  its  being  visited  by 
the  promiscuous  company  of  the  steamboat. 

This  recitation  was  so  unlocked  for  and  surpris 
ing, — he,  the  old  Wordsworth,  standing  apart,  and 
reciting  to  me  in  a  garden- walk,  like  a  schoolboy 
declaiming, — that  I  at  first  was  near  to  laugh ;  but 
recollecting  myself,  that  I  had  come  thus  far  to  see 
a  poet,  and  he  was  chanting  poems  to  me,  I  saw 
that  he  was  right  and  I  was  wrong,  and  gladly  gave 
myself  up  to  hear.  I  told  him  how  much  the  few 
printed  extracts  had  quickened  the  desire  to  possess 
his  unpublished  poems.  He  replied,  he  never  was 
in  haste  to  publish;  partly  because  he  corrected 
a  good  deal,  and  every  alteration  is  ungraciously 
received  after  printing ;  but  what  he'  had  written 
would  be  printed,  whether  he  lived  or  died.  I  said 
"Tintern  Abbey"  appeared  to  be  the  favorite  poem 
with  the  public,  but  more  contemplative  readers 
preferred  the  first  books  of  the  "  Excursion "  and 
the  Sonnets.  He  said,  '  Yes,  they  are  better."  He 
preferred  such  of  his  poems  as  touched  the  affec 
tions  to  any  others ;  for  whatever  is  didactic — what 
theories  of  society,  and  so  on — might  perish  quickly ; 
but  whatever  combined  a  truth  with  an  affection 
was  KTrjpa  ts  dfi,  good  to-day  and  good  forever.  He 
cited  the  sonnet  "  On  the  feelings  of  a  high-minded 

15 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

Spaniard,"  which  he  preferred  to  any  other  (I  so 
understood  him),  and  the  "  Two  Voices " ;  and 
quoted,  with  evident  pleasure,  the  verses  addressed 
"To  the  Skylark."  In  this  connection  he  said  of 
the  Newtonian  theory  that  it  might  yet  be  super 
seded  and  forgotten  ;  and  Dalton's  atomic  theory. 

When  I  prepared  to  depart,  he  said  he  wished  to 
show  me  what  a  common  person  in  England  could 
do,  and  he  led  me  into  the  enclosure  of  his  clerk,  a 
young  man, to  whom  he  had  given  this  slip  of  ground, 
which  was  laid  out,  or  its  natural  capabilities  shown, 
with  much  taste.  He  then  said  he  would  show  me 
a  better  way  towards  the  inn  ;  and  he  walked  a  good 
part  of  a  mile,  talking,  and  ever  and  anon  stopping 
short  to  impress  the  word  or  the  verse,  and  finally 
parted  from  me  with  great  kindness,  and  returned 
across  the  fields. 

Wordsworth  honored  himself  by  his  simple  ad 
herence  to  truth,  and  was  very  willing  not  to  shine ; 
but  he  surprised  by  the  hard  limits  of  his  thought. 
To  judge  from  a  single  conversation,  he  made  the 
impression  of  a  narrow  and  very  English  mind  ;  of 
one  who  paid  for  his  rare  elevation  by  general 
lameness  and  conformity.  Off  his  own  beat,  his 
opinions  were  of  no  value.  It  is  not  very  rare  to 
find  persons  loving  sympathy  and  ease,  who  expiate 
their  departure  from  the  common  in  one  direction 
by  their  conformity  in  every  other. 


16 


CHAPTER  II.  VOYAGE  TO 
ENGLAND 

P  B  ^HE  occasion  of  my  second  visit  to 
England  was  an  invitation  from  some 
Mechanics'  Institutes  in  Lancashire  and 
JL.  Yorkshire,  which  separately  are  organ 
ized  much  in  the  same  way  as  our  New  England 
Lyceums,  but,  in  1847,  had  been  linked  into  a 
"  Union,"  which  embraced  twenty  or  thirty  towns 
and  cities,  and  presently  extended  into  the  middle 
counties,  and  northward  into  Scotland.  I  was  in 
vited,  on  liberal  terms,  to  read  a  series  of  lectures 
in  them  all.  The  request  was  urged  with  every 
kind  suggestion,  and  every  assurance  of  aid  and 
comfort,  by  friendliest  parties  in  Manchester,  who, 
in  the  sequel,  amply  redeemed  their  word.  The 
remuneration  was  equivalent  to  the  fees  at  that 
time  paid  in  this  country  for  the  like  services.  At 
all  events,  it  was  sufficient  to  cover  any  travelling 
expenses,  and  the  proposal  offered  an  excellent 
opportunity  of  seeing  the  interior  of  England  and 
Scotland,  by  means  of  a  home,  and  a  committee  of 
intelligent  friends,  awaiting  me  in  every  town. 

I  did  not  go  very  willingly.  I  am  not  a  good 
traveller,  nor  have  I  found  that  long  journeys  yield 
a  fair  share  of  reasonable  hours.  But  the  invitation 
was  repeated  and  pressed  at  a  moment  of  more 
leisure,  and  when  I  was  a  little  spent  by  some  un 
usual  studies.  I  wanted  a  change  and  a  tonic,  and 
England  was  proposed  to  me.  Besides,  there  were, 
at  least,  the  dread  attraction  and  salutary  influences 
of  the  sea.  So  I  took  my  berth  in  the  packet-ship 
Washington  Irving,  and  sailed  from  Boston  on 
Tuesday,  5th  October,  1847. 

On  Friday,  at  noon,  we  had  only  made  one 
b  17 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

hundred  and  thirty-four  miles.  A  nimble  Indian 
would  have  swum  as  far ;  but  the  captain  affirmed 
that  the  ship  would  show  us  in  time  all  her  paces, 
and  we  crept  along  through  the  floating  drift  of 
boards,  logs,  and  chips,  which  the  rivers  of  Maine 
and  New  Brunswick  pour  into  the  sea  after  a 
freshet. 

At  last,  on  Sunday  night,  after  doing  one  day's 
work  in  four,  the  storm  came,  the  winds  blew,  and 
we  flew  before  a  north-wester,  which  strained  every 
rope  and  sail.  The  good  ship  darts  through  the 
water  all  day,  all  night,  like  a  fish,  quivering  with 
speed,  gliding  through  liquid  leagues,  sliding  from 
horizon  to  horizon.  She  has  passed  Cape  Sable ; 
she  has  reached  the  Banks  ;  the  land-birds  are  left ; 
gulls,  haglets,  ducks,  petrels,  swim,  dive,  and  hover 
around;  no  fishermen;  she  has  passed  the  Banks; 
left  five  sail  behind  her,  far  on  the  edge  of  the  west 
at  sun-down,  which  were  far  east  of  us  at  morn, — 
though  they  say  at  sea  a  stern  chase  is  a  long  race, — 
and  still  we  fly  for  our  lives.  The  shortest  sea-line  from 
Boston  to  Liverpool  is  2850  miles.  This  a  steamer 
keeps,  and  saves  150  miles.  A  sailing  ship  can 
never  go  in  a  shorter  line  than  3000,  and  usually  it 
is  much  longer.  Our  good  master  keeps  his  kites 
up  to  the  last  moment,  studding-sails  alow  and  aloft, 
and,  by  incessant  straight  steering,  never  loses  a 
rod  of  way.  Watchfulness  is  the  law  of  the  ship, — 
watch  on  watch,  for  advantage  and  for  life.  Since 
the  ship  was  built,  it  seems,  the  master  never  slept 
but  in  his  day-clothes  whilst  on  board.  "  There  are 
many  advantages,"  says  Saadi,  "in  sea-voyaging, 
but  security  is  not  one  of  them."  Yet  in  hurrying 
over  these  abysses,  whatever  dangers  we  are  run 
ning  into,  we  are  certainly  running  out  of  the  risks 
18 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

of  hundreds  of  miles  every  day,  which  have  their 
own  chances  of  squall,  collision,  sea-stroke,  piracy, 
cold,  and  thunder.  Hour  for  hour,  the  risk  on  a 
steamboat  is  greater ;  but  the  speed  is  safety,  or, 
twelve  days  of  danger,  instead  of  twenty-four. 
Our  ship  was  registered  750  tons,  and  weighed 
perhaps,  with  all  her  freight,  1500  tons.  The  main 
mast,  from  the  deck  to  the  top-button,  measured 
115  feet ;  the  length  of  the  deck,  from  stem  to  stern, 
155.  It  is  impossible  not  to  personify  a  ship  ;  every 
body  does,  in  everything  they  say : — she  behaves 
well;  she  minds  her  rudder;  she  swims  like  a 
duck ;  she  runs  her  nose  into  the  water ;  she  looks 
into  a  port.  Then  that  wonderful  esprit  du  corps, 
by  which  we  adopt  into  our  self-love  everything 
we  touch,  makes  us  all  champions  of  her  sailing 
qualities. 

The  conscious  ship  hears  all  the  praise.  In  one 
week  she  has  made  1467  miles,  and  now,  at  night, 
seems  to  hear  the  steamer  behind  her,  which  left 
Boston  to-day  at  two,  has  mended  her  speed,  and 
is  flying  before  the  gray  south  wind  eleven  and  a 
half  knots  the  hour.  The  sea-fire  shines  in  her  wake, 
and  far  around  wherever  a  wave  breaks.  I  read 
the  hour,  9h.  45',  on  my  watch  by  this  light.  Near 
the  equator,  you  can  read  small  print  by  it ;  and 
the  mate  describes  the  phosphoric  insects,  when 
taken  up  in  a  pail,  as  shaped  like  a  Carolina  potato. 

I  find  the  sea-life  an  acquired  taste,  like  that  for 
tomatoes  and  olives.  The  confinement,  cold,  motion, 
noise,  and  odor  are  not  to  be  dispensed  with.  The 
floor  of  your  room  is  sloped  at  an  angle  of  twenty 
or  thirty  degrees,  and  I  waked  every  morning  with 
the  belief  that  some  one  was  tipping  up  my  berth. 
Nobody  likes  to  be  treated  ignominiously,  upset, 

19 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

shoved  against  the  side  of  the  house,  rolled  over, 
suffocated   with  bilge,   mephitis,  and  stewing  oil. 
We   get    used   to    these  annoyances  at    last,   but 
the   dread    of  the  sea  remains  longer.     The   sea 
is  masculine,  the  type  of  active  strength.    Look, 
what  egg-shells  are  drifting  all  over  it,  each  one, 
like  ours,  filled  with  men  in  ecstasies  of  terror, 
alternating  with  cockney  conceit,  as  the  sea  is  rough 
or  smooth.     Is  this  sad-colored  circle  an  eternal 
cemetery?    In  our  graveyards  we  scoop  a  pit,  but 
this    aggressive   water  opens   mile-wide   pits   and 
chasms,  and  makes  a  mouthful  of  a  fleet.    To  the 
geologist,  the  sea  is  the  only  firmament ;  the  land 
is  in  perpetual  flux  and  change,  now  blown  up  like 
a  tumor,  now  sunk  in  a  chasm,  and  the  registered 
observations  of  a  few  hundred  years  find  it  in  a 
perpetual  tilt,  rising  and  falling.    The  sea  keeps  its 
old  level;  and  'tis  no  wonder  that  the  history  of 
our  race  is  so  recent,  if  the  roar  of  the  ocean  is 
silencing  our  traditions.    A  rising  of  the  sea,  such  as 
has  been  observed,  say  an  inch  in  a  century,  from 
east  to  west  on  the  land,  will  bury  all  the  towns, 
monuments,  bones,   and  knowledge   of  mankind, 
steadily  and  insensibly.    If  it  is  capable  of  these 
great  and  secular  mischiefs,  it  is  quite  as  ready  at 
private  and  local  damage ;  and  of  this  no  landsman 
seems  so  fearful  as  the  seaman.    Such  discomfort 
and  such  danger  as  the  narratives  of  the  captain 
and  mate  disclose  are  bad  enough  as  the  costly  fee 
we  pay  for  entrance  to  Europe;  but  the  wonder  is 
always  new  that  any  sane  man  can  be  a  sailor. 
And  here,  on  the  second  day  of  our  voyage,  stepped 
out  a  little  boy  in  his  shirt-sleeves,  who  had  hid 
himself,  whilst  the  ship  was  in  port,  in  the  bread- 
closet,  having  no  money,  and  wishing  to  go  to  Eng- 

20 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

land.  The  sailors  have  dressed  him  in  Guernsey 
frock,  with  a  knife  in  his  belt,  and  he  is  climbing 
nimbly  about  after  them,  "  likes  the  work  first-rate, 
and,  if  the  captain  will  take  him,  means  now  to 
come  back  again  in  the  ship."  The  mate  avers  that 
this  is  the  history  of  all  sailors  ;  nine  out  often  are 
runaway  boys ;  and  adds  that  all  of  them  are  sick 
of  the  sea,  but  stay  in  it  out  of  pride.  Jack  has  a 
life  of  risks,  incessant  abuse,  and  the  worst  pay. 
It  is  a  little  better  with  the  mate,  and  not  very  much 
better  with  the  captain.  A  hundred  dollars  a  month 
is  reckoned  high  pay.  If  sailors  were  contented,  if 
they  had  not  resolved  again  and  again  not  to  go  to 
sea  any  more,  I  should  respect  them. 

Of  course,  the  inconveniences  and  terrors  of  the 
sea  are  not  of  any  account  to  those  whose  minds 
are  preoccupied.  The  water-laws,  arctic  frost,  the 
mountain,  the  mine,  only  shatter  cockneyism ;  every 
noble  activity  makes  room  for  itself.  A  great  mind 
is  a  good  sailor,  as  a  great  heart  is.  And  the  sea  is 
not  slow  in  disclosing  inestimable  secrets  to  a  good 
naturalist. 

'Tis  a  good  rule  in  every  journey  to  provide  some 
piece  of  liberal  study  to  rescue  the  hours  which  bad 
weather,  bad  company,  and  taverns  steal  from  the 
best  economist.  Classics  which  at  home  are  drowsily 
read  have  a  strange  charm  in  a  country  inn,  or  in 
the  transom  of  a  merchant  brig.  I  remember  that 
some  of  the  happiest  and  most  valuable  hours  I  have 
owed  to  books,  passed  many  years  ago,  on  ship 
board.  The  worst  impediment  I  have  found  at  sea 
is  the  want  of  light  in  the  cabin. 

We  found  on  board  the  usual  cabin  library  :  Basil 
Hall,  Dumas,  Dickens,  Bulwer,  Balzac,  and  Sand 
were  our  sea-gods.  Among  the  passengers,  there 

21 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

was  some  variety  of  talent  and  profession  ;  we  ex 
changed  our  experiences,  and  all  learned  something. 
The  busiest  talk  with  leisure  and  convenience  at 
sea,  and  sometimes  a  memorable  fact  turns  up, 
which  you  have  long  had  a  vacant  niche  for,  and 
seize  with  the  joy  of  a  collector.  But,  under  the 
best  conditions,  a  voyage  is  one  of  the  severest  tests 
to  try  a  man.  A  college  examination  is  nothing  to 
it.  Sea-days  are  long, — these  lack-lustre,  joyless 
days  which  whistled  over  us ;  but  they  were  few, — 
only  fifteen,  as  the  captain  counted,  sixteen  accord 
ing  to  me.  Reckoned  from  the  time  when  we  left 
soundings,  our  speed  was  such  that  the  captain 
drew  the  line  of  his  course  in  red  ink  on  his  chart 
for  the  encouragement  or  envy  of  future  navigators. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  King  of  England  would 
consult  his  dignity  by  giving  audience  to  foreign 
ambassadors  in  the  cabin  of  a  man-of-war.  And  I 
think  the  white  path  of  an  Atlantic  ship  the  right 
avenue  to  the  palace  front  of  this  seafaring  people, 
who  for  hundreds  of  years  claimed  the  strict  sove 
reignty  of  the  sea,  and  exacted  toll  and  the  striking 
sail  from  the  ships  of  all  other  peoples.  When  their 
privilege  was  disputed  by  the  Dutch  and  other 
junior  marines,  on  the  plea  that  you  could  never 
anchor  on  the  same  wave,  or  hold  property  in  what 
was  always  flowing,  the  English  did  not  stick  to 
claim  the  channel,  or  bottom  of  all  the  main.  "As 
if,"  said  they,  "we  contended  for  the  drops  of  the 
sea,  and  not  for  its  situation,  or  the  bed  of  those 
waters.  The  sea  is  bounded  by  his  majesty's 
empire." 

As  we  neared  the  land,  its  genius  was  felt.  This 
was  inevitably  the  British  side.  In  every  man's 
thought  arises  now  a  new  system,  English  senti- 
22 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

ments,  English  loves  and  fears,  English  history  and 
social  modes.  Yesterday,  every  passenger  had 
measured  the  speed  of  the  ship  by  watching  the 
bubbles  over  the  ship's  bulwarks.  To-day,  instead 
of  bubbles,  we  measure  by  Kinsale,  Cork,  Water- 
ford,  and  Ardmore.  There  lay  the  green  shore  of 
Ireland,  like  some  coast  of  plenty.  We  could  see 
towns,  towers,  churches,  harvests ;  but  the  curse  of 
eight  hundred  years  we  could  not  discern. 


23 


CHAPTER  III.  LAND 

ALFIERI  thought  Italy  and  England  the 
only  countries  worth  living  in ;  the  for 
mer,  because  there  nature  vindicates 
her  rights,  and  triumphs  over  the  evils 
inflicted  by  the  governments;  the  latter,  because 
art  conquers  nature,  and  transforms  a  rude,  un- 
genial  land  into  a  paradise  of  comfort  and  plenty. 
England  is  a  garden.  Under  an  ash-colored  sky, 
the  fields  have  been  combed  and  rolled  till  they 
appear  to  have  been  finished  with  a  pencil  instead 
of  a  plough.  The  solidity  of  the  structures  that 
compose  the  towns  speaks  the  industry  of  ages. 
Nothing  is  left  as  it  was  made.  Rivers,  hills,  val 
leys,  the  sea  itself  feel  the  hand  of  a  master.  The 
long  habitation  of  a  powerful  and  ingenious  race 
has  turned  every  rood  of  land  to  its  best  use,  has 
found  all  the  capabilities,  the  arable  soil,  the  quar- 
riable  rock,  the  highways,  the  byways,  the  fords, 
the  navigable  waters ;  and  the  new  arts  of  inter 
course  meet  you  everywhere;  so  that  England  is 
a  huge  phalanstery,  where  all  that  man  wants  is 
provided  within  the  precinct.  Cushioned  and  com 
forted  in  every  manner,  the  traveller  rides  as  on  a 
cannon-ball,  high  and  low,  over  rivers  and  towns, 
through  mountains,  in  tunnels  of  three  or  four 
miles,  at  near  twice  the  speed  of  our  trains ;  and 
reads  quietly  the  "  Times  "  newspaper,  which,  by 
its  immense  correspondence  and  reporting,  seems 
to  have  machinized  the  rest  of  the  world  for  his 
occasion. 

The  problem  of  the  traveller  landing  at  Liver 
pool  is,  Why  England  is  England  ?  What  are  the 
elements  of  that  power  which  the  English  hold  over 
other  nations  ?  If  there  be  one  test  of  national 

25 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

genius  universally  accepted,  it  is  success;  and  if 
there  be  one  successful  country  in  the  universe  for 
the  last  millennium,  that  country  is  England. 

A  wise  traveller  will  naturally  choose  to  visit 
the  best  of  actual  nations ;  and  an  American  has 
more  reasons  than  another  to  draw  him  to  Britain. 
In  all  that  is  done  or  begun  by  the  Americans  to 
wards  right  thinking  or  practice,  we  are  met  by  a 
civilization  already  settled  and  overpowering.  The 
culture  of  the  day,  the  thoughts  and  aims  of  men, 
are  English  thoughts  and  aims.  A  nation  consider 
able  for  a  thousand  years  since  Egbert,  it  has,  in 
the  last  centuries,  obtained  the  ascendant,  and 
stamped  the  knowledge,  activity,  and  power  of 
mankind  with  its  impress.  Those  who  resist  it  do 
not  feel  it  or  obey  it  less.  The  Russian  in  his  snows 
is  aiming  to  be  English.  The  Turk  and  Chinese 
also  are  making  awkward  efforts  to  be  English. 
The  practical  common-sense  of  modern  society,  the 
utilitarian  direction  which  labor,  laws,  opinion, 
religion  take,  is  the  natural  genius  of  the  British 
mind.  The  influence  of  France  is  a  constituent  of 
modern  civility,  but  not  enough  opposed  to  the 
English  for  the  most  wholesome  effect.  The  Ameri 
can  is  only  the  continuation  of  the  English  genius 
into  new  conditions,  more  or  less  propitious. 

See  what  books  fill  our  libraries.  Every  book 
we  read,  every  biography,  play,  romance,  in  what 
ever  form,  is  still  English  history  and  manners.  So 
that  a  sensible  Englishman  once  said  to  me,  "As 
long  as  you  do  not  grant  us  copyright,  we  shall 
have  the  teaching  of  you." 

ttut  we  have  the  same  difficulty  in  making  a 
social  or  moral  estimate  of  England,  as  the  sheriff 
finds  in  drawing  a  jury  to  try  some  cause  which 
26 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

has  agitated  the  whole  community,  and  on  which 
everybody  finds  himself  an  interested  party.  Offi 
cers,  jurors,  judges  have  all  taken  sides.  England 
has  inoculated  all  nations  with  her  civilization,  in 
telligence,  and  tastes ;  and,  to  resist  the  tyranny 
and  prepossession  of  the  British  element,  a  serious 
man  must  aid  himself,  by  comparing  with  it  the 
civilizations  of  the  farthest  east  and  west,  the  old 
Greek,  the  Oriental,  and,  much  more,  the  ideal 
standard,  if  only  by  means  of  the  very  impatience 
which  English  forms  are  sure  to  awaken  in  inde 
pendent  minds. 

Besides,  if  we  will  visit  London,  the  present  time 
is  the  best  time,  as  some  signs  portend  that  it  has 
reached  its  highest  point.  It  is  observed  that  the 
English  interest  us  a  little  less  within  a  few  years ; 
and  hence  the  impression  that  the  British  power 
has  culminated,  is  in  solstice,  or  already  declining. 

As  soon  as  you  enter  England,  which,  with 
Wales,  is  no  larger  than  the  State  of  Georgia,1  this 
little  land  stretches  by  an  illusion  to  the  dimensions 
of  an  empire.  The  innumerable  details,  the  crowded 
succession  of  towns,  cities,  cathedrals,  castles,  and 
great  and  decorated  estates,  the  number  and  power 
of  the  trades  and  guilds,  the  military  strength  and 
splendor,  the  multitudes  of  rich  and  remarkable 
people,  the  servants  and  equipages, — all  these  catch 
ing  the  eye,  and  never  allowing  it  to  pause,  hide  all 
boundaries  by  the  impression  of  magnificence  and 
endless  wealth. 

I  reply  to  all  the  urgencies  that  refer  me  to  this 
and  that  object  indispensably  to  be  seen, — Yes,  to 
see  England  well  needs  a  hundred  years  ;  for,  what 
they  told  me  was  the  merit  of  Sir  John  Soane's 
Museum,  in  London, — that  it  was  well  packed  and 

27 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

well  saved, — is  the  merit  of  England  ; — it  is  stuffed 
full,  in  all  corners  and  crevices,  with  towns,  towers, 
churches,  villas,  palaces,  hospitals,  and  charity- 
houses.  In  the  history  of  art  it  is  a  long  way  from 
a  cromlech  to  York  minster ;  yet  all  the  interme 
diate  steps  may  still  be  traced  in  this  all-preserving 
island. 

The  territory  has  a  singular  perfection.  The 
climate  is  warmer  by  many  degrees  than  it  is  en 
titled  to  by  latitude.  Neither  hot  nor  cold,  there  is 
no  hour  in  the  whole  year  when  one  cannot  work. 
Here  is  no  winter,  but  such  days  as  we  have  in 
Massachusetts  in  November,  a  temperature  which 
makes  no  exhausting  demand  on  human  strength, 
but  allows  the  attainment  of  the  largest  stature. 
Charles  the  Second  said,  "it  invited  men  abroad 
more  days  in  the  year  and  more  hours  in  the  day 
than  another  country."  Then  England  has  all  the 
materials  of  a  working  country  except  wood.  The 
constant  rain, — a  rain  with  every  tide  in  some  parts 
of  the  island, — keeps  its  multitude  of  rivers  full,  and 
brings  agricultural  production  up  to  the  highest 
point.  It  has  plenty  of  water,  of  stone,  of  potter's 
clay,  of  coal,  of  salt,  and  of  iron.  The  land  natu 
rally  abounds  with  game;  immense  heaths  and 
downs  are  paved  with  quails,  grouse,  and  woodcock, 
and  the  shores  are  animated  by  water  birds.  The 
rivers  and  the  surrounding  sea  spawn  with  fish ; 
there  are  salmon  for  the  rich,  and  sprats  and 
herrings  for  the  poor.  In  the  northern  lochs  the 
herring  are  in  innumerable  shoals ;  at  one  season, 
the  country  people  say,  the  lakes  contain  one  part 
water  and  two  parts  fish. 

The  only  drawback  on  this  industrial  conve- 
niency  is  the  Darkness  of  its  sky.  The  night  and 
28 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

day  are  too  nearly  of  a  color.  It  strains  the  eyes 
to  read  and  to  write.  Add  the  coal  smoke.  In  the 
manufacturing  towns,  the  fine  soot  or  blacks  darken 
the  day,  give  white  sheep  the  color  of  black  sheep, 
discolor  the  human  saliva,  contaminate  the  air, 
poison  many  plants,  and  corrode  the  monuments 
and  buildings. 

The  London  fog  aggravates  the  distempers  of  the 
sky,  and  sometimes  justifies  the  epigram  on  the 
climate  by  an  English  wit,  "in  a  fine  day,  looking 
up  a  chimney ;  in  a  foul  day,  looking  down  one." 
A  gentleman  in  Liverpool  told  me  that  he  found  he 
could  do  without  a  fire  in  his  parlor  about  one  day 
in  the  year.  It  is,  however,  pretended  that  the 
enormous  consumption  of  coal  in  the  island  is  also 
felt  in  modifying  the  general  climate. 

Factitious  climate,  factitious  position.  England 
resembles  a  ship  in  its  shape,  and,  if  it  were  one,  its 
best  admiral  could  not  have  worked  it,  or  anchored 
it  in  a  more  judicious  or  effective  position.  Sir 
John  Herschel  said,  "  London  was  the  centre  of  the 
terrene  globe."  The  shopkeeping  nation,  to  use  a 
shop  word,  has  a  good  stand.  The  old  Venetians 
pleased  themselves  with  the  flattery  that  Venice 
was  in  45°,  midway  between  the  poles  and  the  line ; 
as  if  that  were  an  imperial  centrality.  Long  of  old, 
the  Greeks  fancied  Delphi  the  navel  of  the  earth, 
in  their  favorite  mode  of  fabling  the  earth  to  be  an 
animal.  The  Jews  believed  Jerusalem  to  be  the 
centre.  I  have  seen  a  kratometric  chart  designed 
to  show  that  the  city  of  Philadelphia  was  in  the 
same  thermic  belt,  and,  by  inference,  in  the  same 
belt  of  empire,  as  the  cities  of  Athens,  Rome,  and 
London.  It  was  drawn  by  a  patriotic  Philadel- 
phian,  and  was  examined  with  pleasure,  under  his 

29 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

showing,  by  the  inhabitants  of  Chestnut  Street. 
But  when  carried  to  Charleston,  to  New  Orleans, 
and  to  Boston,  it  somehow  failed  to  convince  the 
ingenious  scholars  of  all  those  capitals. 

But  England  is  anchored  at  the  side  of  Europe, 
and  right  in  the  heart  of  the  modern  world.  The 
sea,  which,  according  to  Virgil's  famous  line,  divided 
the  poor  Britons  utterly  from  the  world,  proved  to 
be  the  ring  of  marriage  with  all  nations.  It  is  not 
down  in  the  books, — it  is  written  only  in  the  geo 
logic  strata, — that  fortunate  day  when  a  wave  of  the 
German  Ocean  burst  the  old  isthmus  which  joined 
Kent  and  Cornwall  to  France,  and  gave  to  this 
fragment  of  Europe  its  impregnable  sea  wall,  cut 
ting  off  an  island  of  eight  hundred  miles  in  length, 
with  an  irregular  breadth  reaching  to  three  hundred 
miles ;  a  territory  large  enough  for  independence 
enriched  with  every  seed  of  national  power,  so 
near,  that  it  can  see  the  harvests  of  the  continent; 
and  so  far,  that  who  would  cross  the  strait  must  be 
an  expert  mariner,  ready  for  tempests.  As  America, 
Europe,  and  Asia  lie,  these  Britons  have  precisely 
the  best  commercial  position  in  the  whole  planet, 
and  are  sure  of  a  market  for  all  the  goods  they  can 
manufacture.  And  to  make  these  advantages  avail, 
the  river  Thames  must  dig  its  spacious  outlet  to 
the  sea  from  the  heart  of  the  kingdom,  giving  road 
and  landing  to  innumerable  ships,  and  all  the  con- 
veniency  to  trade,  that  a  people  so  skilful  and 
sufficient  in  economizing  water-front  by  docks, 
warehouses,  and  lighters  required.  When  James 
the  First  declared  his  purpose  of  punishing  London 
by  removing  his  Court,  the  Lord  Mayor  replied, 
that,  in  removing  his  royal  presence  from  his 
lieges,  they  hoped  he  would  leave  them  the  Thames." 
30 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

In  the  variety  of  surface,  Britain  is  a  miniature  of 
Europe,  having  plain,  forest,  marsh,  river,,  seashore  ; 
mines  in  Cornwall ;  caves  in  Matlock  and  Derby 
shire  ;  delicious  landscape  in  Dovedale,  delicious 
sea- view  at  Tor  Bay,  Highlands  in  Scotland,  Snow- 
don  in  Wales  ;  and,  in  Westmoreland  and  Cumber 
land,  a  pocket  Switzerland,  in  which  the  lakes  and 
mountains  are  on  a  sufficient  scale  to  fill  the  eye 
and  touch  the  imagination.  It  is  a  nation  conve 
niently  small.  Fontenelle  thought  that  nature  had 
sometimes  a  little  affectation  ;  and  there  is  such  an 
artificial  completeness  in  this  nation  of  artificers, 
as  if  there  were  a  design  from  the  beginning  to  ela 
borate  a  bigger  Birmingham.  Nature  held  counsel 
with  herself,  and  said,  '  My  Romans  are  gone.  To 
build  my  new  empire,  I  will  choose  a  rude  race, 
all  masculine,  with  brutish  strength.  I  will  not 
grudge  a  competition  of  the  roughest  males.  Let 
buffalo  gore  buffalo,  and  the  pasture  to  the 
strongest !  For  I  have  work  that  requires  the  best 
will  and  sinew.  Sharp  and  temperate  northern 
breezes  shall  blow,  to  keep  that  will  alive  and  alert. 
The  sea  shall  disjoin  the  people  from  others,  and 
knit  them  to  a  fierce  nationality.  It  shall  give  them 
markets  on  every  side.  Long  time  I  will  keep  them 
on  their  feet,  by  poverty,  border-wars,  seafaring, 
sea-risks,  and  the  stimulus  of  gain.  An  island, — 
but  not  so  large,  the  people  not  so  many,  as  to 
glut  the  great  markets  and  depress  one  another, 
but  proportioned  to  the  size  of  Europe  and  the 
continents.' 

With  its  fruits,  and  wares,  and  money,  must  its 
civil  influence  radiate.  It  is  a  singular  coincidence 
to  this  geographic  centrality,  the  spiritual  cen- 
trality,  which  Emanuel  Swedenborg  ascribes  to  the 

31 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

people.  "For  the  English  nation,  the  best  of  them 
are  in  the  centre  of  all  Christians,  because  they 
have  interior  intellectual  light.  This  appears  con 
spicuously  in  the  spiritual  world.  This  light  they 
derive  from  the  liberty  of  speaking  and  writing, 
and  thereby  of  thinking." 


NOTE 

1  Add  South  Carolina,  and  you  have  more  than  an 
equivalent  for  the  area  of  Scotland. 


32 


CHAPTER  IV.  RAGE 

A  ingenious  anatomist  has  written  a  book1 
to  prove  that  races  are  imperishable, 
but  nations  are  pliant  political  construc 
tions,  easily  changed  or  destroyed.  But 
this  writer  did  not  found  his  assumed  races  on  any 
necessary  law,  disclosing  their  ideal  or  metaphysical 
necessity ;  nor  did  he,  on  the  other  hand,  count 
with  precision  the  existing  races,  and  settle  the  true 
bounds ;  a  point  of  nicety,  and  the  popular  test 
of  the  theory.  The  individuals  at  the  extremes  of 
divergence  in  one  race  of  men  are  as  unlike  as  the 
wolf  to  the  lapdog.  Yet  each  variety  shades  down 
imperceptibly  into  the  next,  and  you  cannot  draw 
the  line  where  a  race  begins  or  ends.  Hence 
every  writer  makes  a  different  count.  Blumen- 
bach  reckons  five  races ;  Humboldt  three ;  and 
Mr.  Pickering,  who  lately,  in  our  Exploring  Expedi 
tion,  thinks  he  saw  all  kinds  of  men  that  can  be  on 
the  planet,  makes  eleven. 

The  British  Empire  is  reckoned  to  contain 
222,000,000  souls,— perhaps  a  fifth  of  the  popula 
tion  of  the  globe ;  and  to  comprise  a  territory  of 
5,000,000  square  miles.  So  far  have  British  people 
predominated.  Perhaps  forty  of  these  millions  are 
of  British  stock.  Add  the  United  States  of  America, 
which  reckon,  exclusive  of  slaves,  20,000,000  of 
people,  on  a  territory  of  3,000,000  square  miles, 
and  in  which  the  foreign  element,  however  con 
siderable,  is  rapidly  assimilated,  and  you  have  a 
population  of  English  descent  and  language,  of 
60,000,000  and  governing  a  population  of  245,000,000 
souls. 

The  British  census  proper  reckons  twenty-seven 

and  a  half  millions  in  the  home  countries.    What 

c  33 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

makes  this  census  important  is  the  quality  of  the 
units  that  compose  it.  They  are  free  forcible  men, 
in  a  country  where  life  is  safe,  and  has  reached  the 
greatest  value.  They  give  the  bias  to  the  current 
age ;  and  that,  not  by  chance  or  by  mass,  but  by 
their  character,  and  by  the  number  of  individuals 
among  them  of  personal  ability.  It  has  been  denied 
that  the  English  have  genius.  Be  it  as  it  may,  men 
of  vast  intellect  have  been  born  on  their  soil,  and 
they  have  made  or  applied  the  principal  inventions. 
They  have  sound  bodies,  and  supreme  endurance 
in  war  and  in  labor.  The  spawning  force  of  the 
race  has  sufficed  to  the  colonization  of  great  parts 
of  the  world ;  yet  it  remains  to  be  seen  whether 
they  can  make  good  the  exodus  of  millions  from 
Great  Britain,  amounting,  in  1S52,  to  more  than  a 
thousand  a  day.  They  have  assimilating  force,  since 
they  are  imitated  by  their  foreign  subjects ;  and 
they  are  still  aggressive  and  propagandist,  enlarging 
the  dominion  of  their  arts  and  liberty.  Their  laws 
are  hospitable,  and  slavery  does  not  exist  under 
them.  What  oppression  exists  is  incidental  and 
temporary ;  their  success  is  not  sudden  or  fortu 
nate,  but  they  have  maintained  constancy  and  self- 
equality  for  many  ages. 

Is  this  power  due  to  their  race,  or  to  some  other 
cause?  Men  hear  gladly  of  the  power  of  blood  or 
race.  Everybody  likes  to  know  that  his  advantages 
cannot  be  attributed  to  air,  soil,  sea,  or  to  local 
wealth,  as  mines  and  quarries,  nor  to  laws  and 
traditions,  nor  to  fortune,  but  to  superior  brain,  as 
it  makes  the  praise  more  personal  to  him. 

We  anticipate  in  the  doctrine  of  race  something 
like  that  law  of  physiology,  that,  whatever  bone, 
muscle,  or  essential  organ  is  found  in  one  healthy 
34 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

individual,  the  same  part  or  organ  may  be  found 
in  or  near  the  same  place  in  its  congener ;  and  we 
look  to  find  in  the  son  every  mental  and  moral 
property  that  existed  in  the  ancestor.  In  race,  it  is 
not  the  broad  shoulders,  or  litheness,  or  stature 
that  give  advantage,  but  a  symmetry  that  reaches 
as  far  as  to  the  wit.  Then  the  miracle  and  renown 
begin.  Then  first  we  care  to  examine  the  pedi 
gree,  and  copy  heedfully  the  training, — what  food 
they  ate,  what  nursing,  school,  and  exercises  they 
had,  which  resulted  in  this  mother-wit,  delicacy  of 
thought,  and  robust  wisdom.  How  came  such  men 
as  King  Alfred,  and  Roger  Bacon,  William  of 
Wykeham,  Walter  Raleigh,  Philip  Sidney,  Isaac 
Newton,  William  Shakspeare,  George  Chapman, 
Francis  Bacon,  George  Herbert,  Henry  Vane,  to 
exist  here  ?  What  made  these  delicate  natures  ? 
was  it  the  air?  was  it  the  sea?  was  it  the  parent 
age?  For  it  is  certain  that  these  men  are  samples 
of  their  contemporaries.  The  hearing  ear  is  always 
found  close  to  the  speaking  tongue ;  and  no  genius 
can  long  or  often  utter  anything  which  is  not  invited 
and  gladly  entertained  by  men  around  him. 

It  is  a  race,  is  it  not,  that  puts  the  hundred 
millions  of  India  under  the  dominion  of  a  remote 
island  in  the  north  of  Europe  ?  Race  avails  much, 
if  that  be  true,  which  is  alleged,  that  all  Celts  are 
Catholics,  and  all  Saxons  are  Protestants  ;  that 
Celts  love  unity  of  power,  and  Saxons  the  repre 
sentative  principle.  Race  is  a  controlling  influence 
in  the  Jew,  who,  for  two  millenniums,  under  every 
climate,  has  preserved  the  same  character  and  em 
ployments.  Race  in  the  negro  is  of  appalling  im 
portance.  The  French  in  Canada,  cut  off  from  all 
intercourse  with  the  parent  people,  have  held  their 

35 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

national  traits.  I  chanced  to  read  Tacitus  "  on  the 
Manners  of  the  Germans,"  not  long  since,  in  Mis 
souri,  and  the  heart  of  Illinois,  and  I  found  abun 
dant  points  of  resemblance  between  the  Germans 
of  the  Hercynian  forest,  and  our  Hoosiers,  Suckers, 
and  Badgers  of  the  American  woods. 

But  whilst  race  works  immortally  to  keep  its  own, 
it  is  resisted  by  other  forces.  Civilization  is  a  re 
agent,  and  eats  away  the  old  traits.  The  Arabs  of 
to-day  are  the  Arabs  of  Pharaoh  ;  but  the  Briton  of 
to-day  is  a  very  different  person  from  Gassibelaunus 
or  Ossian.  Each  religious  sect  has  its  physiognomy. 
The  Methodists  have  acquired  a  face  ;  the  Quakers, 
a  face ;  the  nuns,  a  face.  An  Englishman  will  pick 
out  a  dissenter  by  his  manners.  Trades  and  pro 
fessions  carve  their  own  lines  on  face  and  form. 
Certain  circumstances  of  English  life  are  not  less 
effective;  as,  personal  liberty;  plenty  of  food;  good 
ale  and  mutton  ;  open  market,  or  good  wages  for 
every  kind  of  labor  ;  high  bribes  to  talent  and  skill ; 
the  island  life,  or  the  million  opportunities  and 
outlets  for  expanding  and  misplaced  talent ;  readi 
ness  of  combination  among  themselves  for  politics 
or  for  business ;  strikes  ;  and  sense  of  superiority 
founded  on  habit  of  victory  in  labor  and  in  war; 
and  the  appetite  for  superiority  grows  by  feeding. 

It  is  easy  to  add  to  the  counteracting  forces  to 
race.  Credence  is  a  main  element.  'Tis  said  that 
the  views  of  nature  held  by  any  people  determine 
all  their  institutions.  Whatever  influences  add  to 
mental  or  moral  faculty  take  men  out  of  nation 
ality,  as  out  of  other  conditions,  and  make  the 
national  life  a  culpable  compromise. 

These  limitations  of  the  formidable  doctrine  of 
race  suggest  others  which  threaten  to  undermine 
36 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

it,  as  not  sufficiently  based.  The  fixity  or  incon- 
vertibleness  of  races  as  we  see  them  is  a  weak  argu 
ment  for  the  eternity  of  these  frail  boundaries, 
since  all  our  historical  period  is  a  point  to  the 
duration  in  which  nature  has  wrought.  Any  the 
least  and  solitariestfact  in  our  natural  history,  such 
as  the  melioration  of  fruits  and  of  animal  stocks, 
has  the  worth  of  a  power  in  the  opportunity  of 
geologic  periods.  Moreover,  though  we  flatter  the 
self-love  of  men  and  nations  by  the  legend  of  pure 
races,  all  our  experience  is  of  the  gradation  and 
resolution  of  races,  and  strange  resemblances  meet 
us  everywhere.  It  need  not  puzzle  us  that  Malay 
and  Papuan,  Celt  and  Roman,  Saxon  and  Tartar, 
should  mix,  when  we  see  the  rudiments  of  tiger 
and  baboon  in  our  human  form,  and  know  that  the 
barriers  of  races  are  not  so  firm,  but  that  some 
spray  sprinkles  us  from  the  antediluvian  seas. 

The  low  organizations  are  simplest ;  a  mere 
mouth,  a  jelly,  or  a  straight  worm.  As  the  scale 
mounts,  the  organizations  become  complex.  We 
are  piqued  with  pure  descent,  but  nature  loves 
inoculation.  A  child  blends  in  his  face  the  faces  oi 
both  parents,  and  some  feature  from  every  ancestor 
whose  face  hangs  on  the  wall.  The  best  nations 
are  those  most  widely  related ;  and  navigation,  as 
effecting  a  world-wide  mixture,  is  the  most  potent 
advancer  of  nations. 

The  English  composite  character  betrays  a  mixed 
origin.  Everything  English  is  a  fusion  of  distant 
and  antagonistic  elements.  The  language  is  mixed ; 
the  names  of  men  are  of  different  nations, — three 
languages,  three  or  four  nations  ; — the  currents  ot 
thought  are  counter :  contemplation  and  practi 
cal  skill ;  active  intellect  and  dead  conservatism ; 

37 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

world-wide  enterprise,  and  devoted  use  and  wont ; 
aggressive  freedom  and  hospitable  law,  with  bitter 
class-legislation  ;  a  people  scattered  by  their  wars 
and  affairs  over  the  face  of  the  whole  earth,  and 
homesick  to  a  man  ;  a  country  of  extremes, — dukes 
and  chartists,  Bishops  of  Durham  and  naked 
heathen  colliers ; — nothing  can  be  praised  in  it  with 
out  damning  exceptions,  and  nothing  denounced 
without  salvos  of  cordial  praise. 

Neither  do  this  people  appear  to  be  of  one  stem  ; 
but  collectively  a  better  race  than  any  from  which 
they  are  derived.  Nor  is  it  easy  to  trace  it  home 
to  its  original  seats.  Who  can  call  by  right  names 
what  races  are  in  Britain?  Who  can  trace  them 
historically  ?  Who  can  discriminate  them  ana 
tomically,  or  metaphysically  ? 

In  the  impossibility  of  arriving  at  satisfaction  on 
the  historical  question  of  race,  and, — come  of  what 
ever  disputable  ancestry, — the  indisputable  English 
man  before  me,  himself  very  well  marked,  and  no 
where  else  to  be  found, — I  fancied  I  could  leave 
quite  aside  the  choice  of  a  tribe  as  his  lineal  pro 
genitors.  Defoe  said  in  his  wrath,  "  the  Englishman 
was  the  mud  of  all  races."  I  incline  to  the  belief 
that,  as  water,  lime,  and  sand  make  mortar,  so 
certain  temperaments  marry  well,  and,  by  well- 
managed  contrarieties,  develop  as  drastic  a  cha 
racter  as  the  English.  On  the  whole,  it  is  not  so 
much  a  history  of  one  or  of  certain  tribes  of  Saxons, 
Jutes,  or  Frisians,  coming  from  one  place,  and 
genetically  identical,  as  it  is  an  anthology  of  tem 
peraments  out  of  them  all.  Certain  temperaments 
suit  the  sky  and  soil  of  England,  say  eight  or  ten 
or  twenty  varieties,  as,  out  of  a  hundred  pear 
trees,  eight  or  ten  suit  the  soil  of  an  orchard,  and 
38 


thrive,  whilst  all  the  unadapted  temperaments  die 
out. 

The  English  derive  their  pedigree  from  such  a 
range  of  nationalities,  that  there  needs  sea-room 
and  land-room  to  unfold  the  varieties  of  talent  and 
character.  Perhaps  the  ocean  serves  as  a  galvanic 
battery  to  distribute  acids  at  one  pole,  and  alkalies 
at  the  other.  So  England  tends  to  accumulate 
her  liberals  in  America,  and  her  conservatives  at 
London.  The  Scandinavians  in  her  race  still  hear 
in  every  age  the  murmurs  of  their  mother,  the 
ocean  ;  the  Briton  in  the  blood  hugs  the  homestead 
still. 

Again,  as  if  to  intensate  the  influences  that  are 
not  of  race,  what  we  think  of  when  we  talk  of 
English  traits  really  narrows  itself  to  a  small  dis 
trict.  It  excludes  Ireland,  and  Scotland,  and  Wales, 
and  reduces  itself  at  last  to  London,  that  is,  to  those 
who  come  and  go  thither.  The  portraits  that  hang 
on  the  walls  in  the  Academy  Exhibition  at  London, 
the  figures  in  Punch's  drawings  of  the  public  men, 
or  of  the  club-houses,  the  prints  in  the  shop  win 
dows,  are  distinctive  English,  and  not  American, 
no,  nor  Scotch,  nor  Irish  :  but  'tis  a  very  restricted 
nationality.  As  you  go  north  into  the  manufacturing 
and  agricultural  districts,  and  to  the  population  that 
never  travels,  as  you  go  into  Yorkshire,  as  you  enter 
Scotland,  the  world's  Englishman  is  no  longerfound. 
In  Scotland,  there  is  a  rapid  loss  of  all  grandeur 
of  mien  and  manners;  a  provincial  eagerness  and 
acuteness  appear ;  the  poverty  of  the  country  makes 
itself  remarked,  and  a  coarseness  of  manners  ;  and, 
among  the  intellectual,  is  the  insanity  of  dialectics. 
In  Ireland  are  the  same  climate  and  soil  as  in 
England,  but  less  food,  no  right  relation  to  the 

39 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

land,  political  dependence,  small  tenantry,  and  an 
inferior  or  misplaced  race. 

These  queries  concerning  ancestry  and  blood  may 
be  well  allowed,  for  there  is  no  prosperity  that  seems 
more  to  depend  on  the  kind  of  man  than  British 
prosperity.  Only  a  hardy  and  wise  people  could 
have  made  this  small  territory  great.  We  say,  in  a 
regatta  or  yacht-race,  that  if  the  boats  are  anywhere 
nearly  matched,  it  is  the  man  that  wins.  Put  the 
best  sailing  master  into  either  boat,  and  he  will 
win. 

Yet  it  is  fine  for  us  to  speculate  in  face  of  unbroken 
traditions,  though  vague,  and  losing  themselves  in 
fable.  The  traditions  have  got  footing,  and  refused 
to  be  disturbed.  The  kitchen-clock  is  more  con 
venient  than  sidereal  time.  We  must  use  the  popu 
lar  category,  as  we  do  by  the  Linnaean  classification, 
for  convenience,  and  not  as  exact  and  final.  Other 
wise,  we  are  presently  confounded,  when  the  best- 
settled  traits  of  one  race  are  claimed  by  some  new 
ethnologist  as  precisely  characteristic  of  the  rival 
tribe. 

I  found  plenty  of  well-marked  English  types,  the 
ruddy  complexion  fair  and  plump,  robust  men,  with 
faces  cut  like  a  die,  and  a  strong  island  speech  and 
accent ;  a  Norman  type,  with  a  complacency  that 
belongs  to  that  constitution.  Others,  who  might  be 
Americans,  for  anything  that  appeared  in  their  com 
plexion  or  form :  and  their  speech  was  much  less 
marked,  and  their  thought  much  less  bound.  We 
will  call  them  Saxons.  Then  the  Roman  has  im 
planted  his  dark  complexion  in  the  trinity  or 
quaternity  of  bloods. 

1.  The  sources  from  which  tradition  derives  their 
40 


stock  are  mainly  three.  And,  first,  they  are  of 
the  oldest  blood  of  the  world, — the  Celtic.  Some 
peoples  are  deciduous  or  transitory.  Where  are  the 
Greeks?  where  the  Etrurians?  where  the  Romans? 
But  the  Celts  or  Sidonides  are  an  old  family,  of 
whose  beginning  there  is  no  memory,  and  their  end 
is  likely  to  be  still  more  remote  in  the  future ;  for 
they  have  endurance  and  productiveness.  They 
planted  Britain,  and  gave  to  the  seas  and  mountains 
names  which  are  poems,  and  imitate  the  pure  voices 
of  nature.  They  are  favorably  remembered  in  the 
oldest  records  of  Europe.  They  had  no  violent 
feudal  tenure,  but  the  husbandman  owned  the  land. 
They  had  an  alphabet,  astronomy,  priestly  culture, 
and  a  sublime  creed.  They  have  a  hidden  and  pre 
carious  genius.  They  made  the  best  popular  litera 
ture  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  the  songs  of  Merlin 
and  the  tender  and  delicious  mythology  of  Arthur. 

2.  The  English  come  mainly  from  the  Germans, 
whom  the  Romans  found  hard  to  conquer  in  two 
hundred  and  ten  years, — say,  impossible  to  con 
quer, — when  one  remembers  the  long  sequel ;  a 
people  about  whom,  in  the  old  empire,  the  rumor 
ran,  there  was  never  any  that  meddled  with  them 
that  repented  it  not. 

3.  Charlemagne,  halting  one  day  in  a  town  of 
Narbonnese  Gaul,  looked  out  of  a  window,   and 
saw  a  fleet  of  Northmen  cruising  in  the  Mediter 
ranean.   They  even  entered  the  port  of  the  town 
where  he  was,  causing  no  small  alarm  and  sudden 
manning  and  arming  of  his  galleys.    As  they  put 
out  to  sea  again,  the  emperor  gazed  long  after  them, 
his  eyes  bathed  in  tears.   "  I  am  tormented  with 
sorrow/'  he  said,  "  when  I  foresee  the  evils  they 
will  bring  on  my  posterity."  There  was  reason  for 

41 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

these  Xerxes'  tears.  The  men  who  have  built  a 
ship  and  invented  the  rig, — cordage,  sail,  compass, 
and  pump, — the  working  in  and  out  of  port,  have 
acquired  much  more  than  a  ship.  Now  arm  them, 
and  every  shore  is  at  their  mercy.  For,  if  they 
have  not  numerical  superiority  where  they  anchor 
they  have  only  to  sail  a  mile  or  two  to  find  it. 
Bonaparte's  art  of  war,  namely  of  concentrating 
force  on  the  point  of  attack,  must  always  be  theirs 
who  have  the  choice  of  the  battle-ground.  Of  course 
they  come  into  the  fight  from  a  higher  ground  of 
power  than  the  land-nations  ;  and  can  engage  them 
on  shore  with  a  victorious  advantage  in  the  retreat. 
As  soon  as  the  shores  are  sufficiently  peopled  to 
make  piracy  a  losing  business,  the  same  skill  and 
courage  are  ready  for  the  service  of  trade. 

The  "  Heimskringla," 2  or  Sagas  of  the  Kings 
of  Norway,  collected  by  Snorro  Sturleson,  is  the 
"Iliad "and  "Odyssey "of  English  history.  Its  por 
traits,  like  Homer's,  are  strongly  individualized. 
The  Sagas  describe  a  monarchical  republic  like 
Sparta.  The  government  disappears  before  the  im 
portance  of  citizens.  In  Norway,  no  Persian  masses 
fight  and  perish  to  aggrandize  a  king,  but  the  actors 
are  bonders  or  landholders,  every  one  of  whom 
is  named  and  personally  and  patronymically  de 
scribed,  as  the  king's  friend  and  companion.  A 
sparse  population  gives  this  high  worth  to  every 
man.  Individuals  are  often  noticed  as  very  hand 
some  persons,  which  trait  only  brings  the  story 
nearer  to  the  English  race.  Then  the  solid  material 
interest  predominates,  so  dear  to  English  under 
standing,  wherein  the  association  is  logical,  between 
merit  and  land.  The  heroes  of  the  Sagas  are  not 
the  knights  of  South  Europe.  No  vaporing  of 
42 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

France  and  Spain  has  corrupted  them.  They  are 
substantial  farmers,  whom  the  rough  times  have 
forced  to  defend  their  properties.  They  have 
weapons  which  they  use  in  a  determined  manner, 
by  no  means  for  chivalry,  but  for  their  acres. 
They  are  people  considerably  advanced  in  rural 
arts,  living  amphibiously  on  a  rough  coast,  and 
drawing  half  their  food  from  the  sea,  and  half  from 
the  land.  They  have  herds  of  cows,  and  malt, 
wheat,  bacon,  butter,  and  cheese.  They  fish  in  the 
fiord,  and  hunt  the  deer.  A  king  among  these 
farmers  has  a  varying  power,  sometimes  not  ex 
ceeding  the  authority  of  a  sheriff.  A  king  was 
maintained  much  as,  in  some  of  our  country  dis 
tricts,  a  winter  schoolmaster  is  quartered,  a  week 
here,  a  week  there,  and  a  fortnight  on  the  next 
farm, — on  all  the  farmers  in  rotation.  This  the  king 
calls  going  into  guest-quarters  ;  and  it  was  the  only 
way  in  which,  in  a  poor  country,  a  poor  king,  with 
many  retainers,  could  be  kept  alive,  when  he  leaves 
his  own  farm  to  collect  his  dues  through  the  king 
dom. 

These  Norsemen  are  excellent  persons  in  the 
main,  with  good  sense,  steadiness,  wise  speech,  and 
prompt  action.  But  they  have  a  singular  turn  for 
homicide  ;  their  chief  end  of  man  is  to  murder,  or 
to  be  murdered  ;  oars,  scythes,  harpoons,  crowbars, 
peatknives,  and  hayforks  are  tools  valued  by  them 
all  the  more  for  their  charmingaptitudeforassassina- 
tions.  A  pair  of  kings,  after  dinner,  will  divert 
themselves  by  thrusting  each  his  sword  through  the 
other's  body,  as  did  Yngve  and  Alf.  Another  pair 
ride  out  on  a  morning  for  a  frolic,  and,  finding  no 
weapon  near,  will  take  the  bits  out  of  their  horses' 
mouths,  and  crush  each  other's  heads  with  them, 

43 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

as  did  Alric  and  Eric.  The  sight  of  a  tent-cord  or 
a  cloak-string  puts  them  on  hanging  somebody,  a 
wife,  or  a  husband,  or,  best  of  all,  a  king.  If  a 
farmer  has  so  much  as  a  hayfork,  he  sticks  it  into 
a  King  Dag.  King  Ingiald  finds  it  vastly  amusing  to 
burn  up  half  a  dozen  kings  in  a  hall,  after  getting 
them  drunk.  Never  was  a  poor  gentleman  so  sur 
feited  with  life,  so  furious  to  be  rid  of  it,  as  the 
Northman.  If  he  cannot  pick  any  other  quarrel, 
he  will  get  himself  comfortably  gored  by  a  bull's 
horns,  like  Egil,  or  slain  by  a  land-slide,  like  the 
agricultural  King  Onund.  Odin  died  in  his  bed,  in 
Sweden ;  but  it  was  a  proverb  of  ill  condition,  to  die 
the  death  of  old  age.  King  Hake  of  Sweden  cuts 
and  slashes  in  battle,  as  long  as  he  can  stand,  then 
orders  his  war-ship,  loaded  with  his  dead  men  and 
their  weapons,  to  be  taken  out  to  sea,  the  tiller 
shipped,  and  the  sails  spread  ;  being  left  alone,  he 
sets  fire  to  some  tar-wood,  and  lies  down  contented 
on  deck.  The  wind  blew  off  the  land,  the  ship  flew 
burning  in  clear  flame,  out  between  the  islets  into 
the  ocean,  and  there  was  the  right  end  of  King  Hake. 

The  early  Sagas  are  sanguinary  and  piratical ;  the 
later  are  of  a  noble  strain.  History  rarely  yields  us 
better  passages  than  the  conversation  between  King 
Sigurd  the  Crusader  and  King  Eystein,  his  brother, 
on  their  respective  merits, — one,  the  soldier,  and  the 
other,  a  lover  of  the  arts  of  peace. 

But  the  reader  of  the  Norman  history  must  steel 
himself  by  holding  fast  the  remote  compensations 
which  result  from  animal  vigor.  As  the  old  fossil 
world  shows  that  the  first  steps  of  reducing  the  chaos 
were  confided  to  saurians  and  other  huge  and  hor 
rible  animals,  so  the  foundations  of  the  new  civility 
were  to  be  laid  by  the  most  savage  men. 
44 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

The  Normans  came  out  of  France  into  England 
worse  men  than  they  went  into  it,  one  hundred  and 
sixty  years  before.  They  had  lost  their  own  lan 
guage,  and  learned  the  Romance  or  barbarous  Latin 
of  the  Gauls;  and  had  acquired,  with  the  language, 
all  the  vices  it  had  names  for.  The  conquest  has 
obtained  in  the  chronicles  the  name  of  the  "  memory 
of  sorrow."  Twenty  thousand  thieves  landed  at 
Hastings.  These  founders  of  the  House  of  Lords 
were  greedy  and  ferocious  dragoons,  sons  of  greedy 
and  ferocious  pirates.  They  were  all  alike,  they  took 
everything  they  could  carry,  they  burned,  harried, 
violated,  tortured,  and  killed,  until  everything  Eng 
lish  was  brought  to  the  verge  of  ruin.  Such,  how 
ever,  is  the  illusion  of  antiquity  and  wealth,  that 
decent  and  dignified  men  now  existing  boast  their 
descent  from  these  filthy  thieves,  who  showed  a  far 
juster  conviction  of  their  own  merits,  by  assuming 
for  their  types  the  swine,  goat,  jackal,  leopard,  wolf, 
and  snake,  which  they  severally  resembled. 

England  yielded  to  the  Danes  and  Northmen  in 
the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  and  was  the  re 
ceptacle  into  which  all  the  mettle  of  that  strenuous 
population  was  poured.  The  continued  draught  of 
the  best  men  in  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark  to 
these  piratical  expeditions,  exhausted  those  coun 
tries,  like  a  tree  which  bears  much  fruit  when  young, 
and  these  have  been  second-rate  powers  ever  since. 
The  power  of  the  race  migrated,  and  left  Norway 
void.  King  Olaf  said,  "  When  King  Harold,  my 
father,  went  westward  to  England,  the  chosen  men 
in  Norway  followed  him :  but  Norway  was  so 
emptied  then,  that  such  men  have  not  since  been 
to  find  in  the  country,  nor  especially  such  a  leader 
as  King  Harold  was  for  wisdom  and  bravery." 

45 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

It  was  a  tardy  recoil  of  these  invasions,  when,  in 
1801,  the  British  government  sent  Nelson  to  bom 
bard  the  Danish  forts  in  the  Sound;  and,  in  1807, 
Lord  Cathcart,  at  Copenhagen,  took  the  entire 
Danish  fleet,  as  it  lay  in  the  basins,  and  all  the 
equipments  from  the  Arsenal,  and  carried  them 
to  England.  Konghelle,  the  town  where  the  kings 
of  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark  were  wont  to 
meet,  is  now  rented  to  a  private  English  gentleman 
for  a  hunting  ground. 

It  took  many  generations  to  trim,  and  comb,  and 
perfume  the  first  boat-load  of  Norse  pirates  into 
royal  highnesses  and  most  noble  Knights  of  the 
Garter;  but  every  sparkle  of  ornament  dates  back 
to  the  Norse  boat.  There  will  be  time  enough  to 
mellow  this  strength  into  civility  and  religion.  It 
is  a  medical  fact  that  the  children  of  the  blind 
see ;  the  children  of  felons  have  a  healthy  con 
science.  Many  a  mean,  dastardly  boy  is,  at  the  age 
of  puberty,  transformed  in  a  serious  and  generous 
youth. 

The  mildness  of  the  following  ages  has  not  quite 
effaced  these  traits  of  Odin;  as  the  rudiment  of  a 
structure  matured  in  the  tiger  is  said  to  be  still  found 
unabsorbed  in  the  Caucasian  man.  The  nation  has 
a  tough,  acrid,  animal  nature,  which  centuries  of 
churching  and  civilizing  have  not  been  able  to 
sweeten.  Aliieri  said,  "The  crimes  of  Italy  were 
the  proof  of  the  superiority  of  the  stock;"  and  one 
may  say  of  England  that  this  watch  moves  on  a 
splinter  of  adamant.  The  English  uncultured  are  a 
brutal  nation.  The  crimes  recorded  in  their  calen 
dars  leave  nothing  to  be  desired  in  the  way  of  cold 
malignity.  Dear  to  the  English  heart  is  a  fair  stand- 
up  fight.  The  brutality  of  the  manners  in  the  lower 
46 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

class  appears  in  the  boxing,  bear-baiting,  cock-fight 
ing,  love  of  executions,  and  in  the  readiness  for  a 
set-to  in  the  streets,  delightful  to  the  English  of  all 
classes.  The  costermongers  of  London  streets  hold 
cowardice  in  loathing  : —  '  We  must  work  our  fists 
well ;  we  are  all  handy  with  our  fists."  The  public 
schools  are  charged  with  being  bear-gardens  of  brutal 
strength,  and  are  liked  by  the  people  for  that  cause. 
The  fagging  is  a  trait  of  the  same  quality.  Medwin, 
in  the  Life  of  Shelley,  relates  that,  at  a  military 
school,  they  rolled  up  a  young  man  in  a  snowball, 
and  left  him  so  in  his  room,  while  the  other  cadets 
went  to  church  ; — and  crippled  him  for  life.  They 
have  retained  impressment,  deck-flogging,  army- 
flogging,  and  school-flogging.  Such  is  the  ferocity 
of  the  army  discipline,  that  a  soldier  sentenced  to 
flogging,  sometimes  prays  that  his  sentence  may  be 
commuted  to  death.  Flogging  banished  from  the 
armies  of  Western  Europe,  remains  here  by  the 
sanction  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  The  right  of 
the  husband  to  sell  the  wife  has  been  retained  down 
to  our  times.  The  Jews  have  been  the  favorite  vic 
tims  of  royal  and  popular  persecution.  Henry  III. 
mortgaged  all  the  Jews  in  the  kingdom  to  his  brother, 
the  Earl  of  Cornwall,  as  security  for  money  which 
he  borrowed.  The  torture  of  criminals,  and  the  rack 
for  extorting  evidence,  were  slowly  disused.  Of  the 
criminal  statutes,  Sir  Samuel  Romilly  said,  "  I  have 
examined  the  codes  of  all  nations,  and  ours  is  the 
worst,  and  worthy  of  the  Anthropophagi."  In  the 
last  session,  the  House  of  Commons  was  listening  to 
details  of  flogging  and  torture  practised  in  the  jails. 
As  soon  as  this  land,  thus  geographically  posted, 
got  a  hardy  people  into  it,  they  could  not  help  be 
coming  the  sailors  and  factors  of  the  globe.  From 

47 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

childhood,  they  dabbled  in  water,  they  swum  like 
fishes,  their  playthings  were  boats.  In  the  case 
of  the  ship-money,  the  judges  delivered  it  for  law, 
that  "England  being  an  island,  the  very  midland 
shires  therein  are  all  to  be  accounted  maritime ;  "and 
Fuller  adds,  "the  genius  even  of  landlocked  coun 
ties  driving  the  natives  with  a  maritime  dexterity." 
As  early  as  the  conquest,  it  is  remarked  in  explana 
tion  of  the  wealth  of  England,  that  its  merchants 
trade  to  all  countries. 

The  English,  at  the  present  day,  have  great  vigor 
of  body  and  endurance.  Other  countrymen  look 
slight  and  undersized  beside  them,  and  invalids. 
They  are  bigger  men  than  the  Americans.  I  sup 
pose  a  hundred  English  taken  at  random  out  of  the 
street,  would  weigh  a  fourth  more,  than  so  many 
Americans.  Yet,  I  am  told,  the  skeleton  is  not  larger. 
They  are  round,  ruddy,  and  handsome  ;  at  least, the 
whole  bust  is  well  formed  ;  and  there  is  a  tendency 
to  stout  and  powerful  frames.  I  remarked  the  stout 
ness,  on  my  first  landing  at  Liverpool ;  porter,  dray 
man,  coachman,  guard, — what  substantial,  respect 
able,  grandfatherly  figures,  with  costume  and  man 
ners  to  suit.  The  American  has  arrived  at  the  old 
mansion-house,  and  finds  himself  among  uncles, 
aunts,  and  grandsires.  The  pictures  on  the  chimney- 
tiles  of  his  nursery  were  pictures  of  these  people. 
Here  they  are  in  the  identical  costumes  and  air 
which  so  took  him. 

It  is  the  fault  of  their  forms  that  they  grow 
stocky,  and  the  women  have  that  disadvantage, — 
few  tall,  slender  figures  of  flowing  shapes,  but 
stunted  and  thickset  persons.  The  French  say 
that  the  Englishwomen  have  two  left  hands.  But, 
in  all  ages,  they  are  a  handsome  race.  The  bronze 
48 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

monuments  of  crusaders  lying  cross-legged,  in  the 
Temple  Church  at  London,  and  those  in  Worcester 
and  in  Salisbury  Cathedrals,  which  are  seven  hun 
dred  years  old,  are  of  the  same  type  as  the  best 
youthful  heads  of  men  now  in  England  ; — please  by 
beauty  of  the  same  character,  an  expression  blend 
ing  good  nature,  valor,  and  refinement,  and,  mainly, 
by  that  uncorrupt  youth  in  the  face  of  manhood, 
which  is  daily  seen  in  the  streets  of  London. 

Both  branches  of  the  Scandinavian  race  are  dis 
tinguished  for  beauty.  The  anecdote  of  the  hand 
some  captives  which  Saint  Gregory  found  at  Rome, 
A.D.  600,  is  matched  by  the  testimony  of  the  Nor 
man  chroniclers,  five  centuries  later,  who  wondered 
at  the  beauty  and  long  flowing  hair  of  the  young 
English  captives.  Meantime,  the  "  Heimskringla" 
has  frequent  occasion  to  ,  speak  of  the  personal 
beauty  of  its  heroes.  When  it  is  considered  what 
humanity,  what  resources  of  mental  and  moral 
power,  the  traits  of  the  blond  race  betoken, — its 
accession  to  empire  marks  a  new  and  finer  epoch, 
wherein  the  old  mineral  force  shall  be  subjugated 
at  last  by  humanity,  and  shall  plough  in  its  furrow 
henceforward.  It  is  not  a  final  race,  once  a  crab 
always  a  crab,  but  a  race  with  a  future. 

On  the  English  face  are  combined  decision  and 
nerve,  with  the  fair  complexion,  blue  eyes,  and 
open  and  florid  aspect.  Hence  the  love  of  truth, 
hence  the  sensibility,  the  fine  perception,  and  poetic 
construction.  The  fair  Saxon  man,  with  open  front, 
and  honest  meaning,  domestic,  affectionate,  is  not 
the  wood  out  of  which  cannibal,  or  inquisitor,  or 
assassin  is  made,  but  he  is  moulded  for  law,  lawful 
trade,  civility,  marriage,  the  nurture  of  children, 
for  colleges,  churches,  charities,  and  colonies. 

d  49 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

They  are  rather  manly  than  warlike.  When  the 
war  is  over,  the  mask  falls  from  the  affectionate  and 
domestic  tastes,  which  make  them  women  in  kind 
ness.  This  union  of  qualities  is  fabled  in  their 
national  legend  of  "  Beauty  and  the  Beast,"  or  long 
before,  in  the  Greek  legend  of  "  Hermaphrodite." 
The  two  sexes  are  co-present  in  the  English  mind. 
I  apply  to  Britannia,  queen  of  seas  and  colonies, 
the  words  in  which  her  latest  novelist  portrays  his 
heroine:  "She  is  as  mild  as  she  is  game,  and  as 
game  as  she  is  mild."  The  English  delight  in  the 
antagonism  which  combines  in  one  person  the  ex 
tremes  of  courage  and  tenderness.  Nelson,  dying 
at  Trafalgar,  sends  his  love  to  Lord  Gollingwood, 
and,  like  an  innocent  schoolboy  that  goes  to  bed, 
says,  '  Kiss  me,  Hardy,"  and  turns  to  sleep.  Lord 
Collingwood,  his  comrade,  was  of  a  nature  the  most 
affectionate  and  domestic.  Admiral  Rodney's  figure 
approached  to  delicacy  and  effeminacy,  and  he  de 
clared  himself  very  sensible  to  fear,  which  he  sur 
mounted  only  by  considerations  of  honor  and  public 
duty.  Clarendon  says,  the  Duke  of  Buckingham 
was  so  modest  and  gentle,  that  some  courtiers  at 
tempted  to  put  affronts  on  him,  until  they  found 
that  this  modesty  and  effeminacy  was  only  a  mask 
for  the  most  terrible  determination.  And  Sir  James 
Parry  said,  the  other  day,  of  Sir  John  Franklin, 
that,  "if  he  found  Wellington  Sound  open,  he 
explored  it ;  for  he  was  a  man  who  never  turned 
his  back  on  a  danger,  yet  of  that  tenderness,  that 
he  would  not  brush  away  a  mosquito."  Even  for 
their  highwaymen  the  same  virtue  is  claimed,  and 
Robin  Hood  comes  described  to  us  as  mitissimus 
pncdonum,  the  gentlest  thief.  But  they  know  where 
their  war-dogs  lie.  Cromwell,  Blake,  Marlborough, 
50 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

Chatham,  Nelson,  and  Wellington  are  not  to  be 
trifled  with,  and  the  brutal  strength  which  lies  at 
the  bottom  of  society,  the  animal  ferocity  of  the 
quays  and  cockpits,  the  bullies  of  the  costermongers 
of  Shoreditch,  Seven  Dials,  and  Spitalfields,  they 
know  how  to  wake  up. 

They  have  a  vigorous  health,  and  last  well  into 
middle  and  old  age.  The  old  men  are  as  red  as 
roses,  and  still  handsome.  A  clear  skin,  a  peach- 
bloom  complexion,  and  good  teeth  are  found  all 
over  the  island.  They  use  a  plentiful  and  nutri 
tious  diet.  The  operative  cannot  subsist  on  water- 
cresses.  Beef,  mutton,  wheatbread,  and  malt-liquors 
are  universal  among  the  first-class  laborers.  Good 
feeding  is  a  chief  point  of  national  pride  among  the 
vulgar,  and,  in  their  caricatures,  they  represent  the 
Frenchman  as  a  poor,  starved  body.  It  is  curious 
that  Tacitus  found  the  English  beer  already  in  use 
among  the  Germans :  "  They  make  from  barley  or 
wheat  a  drink  corrupted  into  some  resemblance  to 
wine."  Lord  Chief  Justice  Fortescue,  in  Henry 
VI.'s  time,  says,  "The  inhabitants  of  England 
drink  no  water,  unless  at  certain  times,  on  a  reli 
gious  score,  and  by  way  of  penance."  The  extremes 
of  poverty  and  ascetic  penance,  it  would  seem,  never 
reach  cold  water  in  England.  Wood,  the  antiquary, 
in  describing  the  poverty  and  maceration  of  Father 
Lacey,  an  English  Jesuit,  does  not  deny  him  beer. 
He  says,  "  His  bed  was  under  a  thatching,  and 
the  way  to  it  up  a  ladder ;  his  fare  was  coarse ; 
his  drink,  of  a  penny  a  gawn,  or  gallon." 

They  have  more  constitutional  energy  than  uny 
other  people.  They  think,  with  Henri  Quatre,  that 
manly  exercises  are  the  foundation  of  that  eleva 
tion  of  mind  which  gives  one  nature  ascendant  over 

51 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

another;  or,  with  the  Arabs,  that  the  days  spent 
in  the  chase  are  not  counted  in  the  length  of  life. 
They  box,  run,  shoot,  ride,  row,  and  sail  from  pole 
to  pole.  They  eat,  and  drink,  and  live  jolly  in  the 
open  air,  putting  a  bar  of  solid  sleep  between  day 
and  day.  They  walk  and  ride  as  fast  as  they  can, 
their  head  bent  forward,  as  if  urged  on  some  press 
ing  affair.  The  French  say  that  Englishmen  in  the 
street  always  walk  straight  before  them,  like  mad 
dogs.  Men  and  women  walk  with  infatuation.  As 
soon  as  he  can  handle  a  gun,  hunting  is  the  fine  art 
of  every  Englishman  of  condition.  They  are  the 
most  voracious  people  of  prey  that  ever  existed. 
Every  season  turns  out  the  aristocracy  into  the 
country,  to  shoot  and  fish.  The  more  vigorous  run 
out  of  the  island  to  Europe,  to  America,  to  Asia, 
to  Africa,  and  Australia,  to  hunt  with  fury  by  gun, 
by  trap,  by  harpoon,  by  lasso ;  with  dog,  with 
horse,  with  elephant,  or  with  dromedary,  all  the 
game  that  is  in  nature.  These  men  have  written 
the  game-books  of  all  countries,  as  Hawker,  Scrope, 
Murray,  Herbert,  Maxwell,  Gumming,  and  a  host 
of  travellers.  The  people  at  home  are  addicted  to 
boxing,  running,  leaping,  and  rowing  matches. 

I  suppose,  the  dogs  and  horses  must  be  thanked 
for  the  fact  that  the  men  have  muscles  almost  as 
tough  and  supple  as  their  own.  If  in  every  efficient 
man  there  is  first  a  fine  animal,  in  the  English  race 
it  is  of  the  best  breed,  a  wealthy,  juicy,  broad- 
chested  creature,  steeped  in  ale  and  good  cheer, 
and  a  little  overloaded  by  his  flesh.  Men  of  animal 
nature  rely,  like  animals,  on  their  instincts.  The 
Englishman  associates  well  with  dogs  and  horses. 
His  attachment  to  the  horse  arises  from  the  courage 
and  address  required  to  manage  it.  The  horse  finds 
52 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

out  who  is  afraid  of  it,  and  does  not  disguise  its 
opinion.  Their  young  boiling  clerks  and  lusty 
collegians  like  the  company  of  horses  better  than 
the  company  of  professors.  I  suppose  the  horses 
are  better  company  for  them.  The  horse  has  more 
uses  than  Buffon  noted.  If  you  go  into  the  streets, 
every  driver  in  'bus  or  dray  is  a  bully,  and,  if  I 
wanted  a  good  troop  of  soldiers  I  should  recruit 
among  the  stables.  Add  a  certain  degree  of  refine 
ment  to  the  vivacity  of  these  riders,  and  you  obtain 
the  precise  quality  which  makes  the  men  and  women 
of  polite  society  formidable. 

They  come  honestly  by  their  horsemanship,  with 
Hengst  and  Horsa  for  their  Saxon  founders.  The 
other  branch  of  their  race  had  been  Tartar  nomads. 
The  horse  was  all  their  wealth.  The  children  were 
fed  on  mares'  milk.  The  pastures  of  Tartary  were 
still  remembered  by  the  tenacious  practice  of  the 
Norsemen  to  eat  horseflesh  at  religious  feasts.  In 
the  Danish  invasions,  the  marauders  seized  upon 
horses  where  they  landed,  and  were  at  once  con 
verted  into  a  body  of  expert  cavalry. 

At  one  time  this  skill  seems  to  have  declined. 
Two  centuries  ago  the  English  horse  never  per 
formed  any  eminent  service  beyond  the  seas ;  and 
the  reason  assigned  was  that  the  genius  of  the  English 
hath  always  more  inclined  them  to  foot-service,  as 
pure  and  proper  manhood,  without  any  mixture ; 
whilst,  in  a  victory  on  horseback,  the  credit  ought 
to  be  divided  betwixt  the  man  and  his  horse,,  But 
in  two  hundred  years  a  change  has  taken  place. 
Now,  they  boast  that  they  understand  horses  better 
than  any  other  people  in  the  world,  and  that  their 
horses  are  become  their  second  selves. 

"  William  the  Conqueror  being,"  says  Gamden, 

53 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

"better  affected  to  beasts  than  to  men,  imposed 
heavy  fines  and  punishments  on  those  that  should 
meddle  with  his  game."  The  Saxon  Chronicle  says, 
"  He  loved  the  tall  deer  as  if  he  were  their  father." 
And  rich  Englishmen  have  followed  his  example, 
according  to  their  ability,  ever  since,  in  encroach 
ing  on  the  tillage  and  commons  with  their  game- 
preserves.  It  is  a  proverb  in  England  that  it  is  safer 
to  shoot  a  man  than  a  hare.  The  severity  of  the 
game-laws  certainly  indicates  an  extravagant  sym 
pathy  of  the  nation  with  horses  and  hunters.  The 
gentlemen  are  always  on  horseback,  and  have 
brought  horses  to  an  ideal  perfection, — the  English 
racer  is  a  factitious  breed.  A  score  or  two  of 
mounted  gentlemen  may  frequently  be  seen  run 
ning  like  centaurs  down  a  hill  nearly  as  steep  as 
the  roof  of  a  house.  Every  inn-room  is  lined  with 
pictures  of  races  ;  telegraphs  communicate,  every 
hour,  tidings  of  the  heats  from  Newmarket  and 
Ascot :  and  the  House  of  Commons  adjourns  over 
the  '  Derby  Day.' 


NOTES 

1  "  The    Races,     a     Fragment."     By    Robert     Knox. 
London,  1850. 

"  Heimskringla."    Translated  by  Samuel  Laing,  Esq. 
London,  1844. 


54 


1 


CHAPTER  V.  ABILITY 

JP*  •  ^HE  Saxon  and  the  Northman  are  both 
Scandinavians.  History  does  not  allow 
us  to  fix  the  limits  of  the  application 
of  these  names  with  any  accuracy ;  but 
from  the  residence  of  a  portion  of  these  people  in 
France,  and  from  some  effect  of  that  powerful  soil 
on  their  blood  and  manners,  the  Norman  has  come 
popularly  to  represent  in  England  the  aristocratic, — 
and  the  Saxon  the  democratic  principle.  And 
though,  I  doubt  not,  the  nobles  are  of  both  tribes, 
and  the  workers  of  both,  yet  we  are  forced  to  use 
the  names  a  little  mythically,  one  to  represent  the 
worker,  and  the  other  the  enjoyer. 

The  island  was  a  prize  for  the  best  race.  Each 
of  the  dominant  races  tried  its  fortune  in  turn.  The 
Phoenician,  the  Celt,  and  the  Goth  had  already  got 
in.  The  Roman  came,  but  in  the  very  day  when 
his  fortune  culminated.  He  looked  in  the  eyes  of 
a  new  people  that  was  to  supplant  his  own.  He 
disembarked  his  legions,  erected  his  camps  and 
towers, — presently  he  heard  bad  news  from  Italy, 
and  worse  and  worse,  every  year ;  at  last,  he  made 
a  handsome  compliment  of  roads  and  walls,  and 
departed.  But  the  Saxon  seriously  settled  in  the 
land,  builded,  tilled,  fished,  and  traded,  with  Ger 
man  truth  and  adhesiveness.  The  Dane  came,  and 
divided  with  him.  Last  of  all,  the  Norman,  or 
French-Dane,  arrived,  and  formally  conquered 
harried,  and  ruled  the  kingdom.  A  century  later 
it  came  out  that  the  Saxon  had  the  most  bottom 
and  longevity,  had  managed  to  make  the  victor 
speak  the  language  and  accept  the  law  and  usage 
of  the  victim ;  forced  the  baron  to  dictate  Saxon 
terms  to  Norman  kings ;  and,  step  by  step,  got  all 

55 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

the  essential  securities  of  civil  liberty  invented  and 
confirmed.  The  genius  of  the  race  and  the  genius 
of  the  place  conspired  to  this  effect.  The  island  is 
lucrative  to  free  labor,  but  not  worth  possession 
on  other  terms.  The  race  was  so  intellectual,  that 
a  feudal  or  military  tenure  could  not  last  longer 
than  the  war.  The  power  of  the  Saxon-Danes,  so 
thoroughly  beaten  in  the  war  that  the  name  of 
English  and  villein  were  synonymous,  yet  so  viva 
cious  as  to  extort  charters  from  the  kings,  stood  on 
the  strong  personality  of  these  people.  Sense  and 
economy  must  rule  in  a  world  which  is  made  of 
sense  and  economy,  and  the  banker,  with  his  seven 
per  cent.,  drives  the  earl  out  of  his  castle.  A  nobi 
lity  of  soldiers  cannot  keep  down  a  commonalty  of 
shrewd  scientific  persons.  What  signifies  a  pedigree 
of  a  hundred  links,  against  a  cotton-spinner  with 
steam  in  his  mill;  or,  against  a  company  of  broad- 
shouldered  Liverpool  merchants,  for  whom  Stephen- 
son  and  Brunei  are  contriving  locomotives  and  a 
tubular  bridge? 

These  Saxons  are  the  hands  of  mankind.  They 
have  the  taste  for  toil,  a  distaste  for  pleasure  or 
repose,  and  the  telescopic  appreciation  of  distant 
gain.  They  are  the  wealth-makers, — and  by  dint  of 
mental  faculty,  which  has  its  own  conditions.  The 
Saxon  works  after  liking,  or,  only  for  himself;  and 
to  set  him  at  work,  and  to  begin  to  draw  his  mon 
strous  values  out  of  barren  Britain,  all  dishonor, 
fret,  and  barrier  must  be  removed,  and  then  his 
energies  begin  to  play. 

The  Scandinavian  fancied  himself  surrounded 
by  Trolls, — a  kind  of  goblin  men,  with  vast  power 
of  work  and  skilful  production, — divine  stevedores, 
carpenters,  reapers,  smiths,  and  masons,  swift  to 
56 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

reward  every  kindness  done  them,  with  gifts  of 
gold  and  silver.  In  all  English  history,  this  dream 
comes  to  pass.  Certain  Trolls  or  working  brains, 
under  the  names  of  Alfred,  Bede,  Caxton,  Bracton, 
Camden,  Drake,  Selden,  Dugdale,  Newton,  Gibbon, 
Brindley,  Watt,  Wedgwood,  dwell  in  the  troll- 
mounts  of  Britain,  and  turn  the  sweat  of  their  face 
to  power  and  renown. 

If  the  race  is  good,  so  is  the  place.  Nobody 
landed  on  this  spellbound  island  with  impunity. 
The  enchantments  of  barren  shingle  and  rough 
weather  transformed  every  adventurer  into  a 
laborer.  Each  vagabond  that  arrived  bent  his  neck 
to  the  yoke  of  gain,  or  found  the  air  too  tense  for 
him.  The  strong  survived,  the  weaker  went  to  the 
ground.  Even  the  pleasure-hunters  and  sots  of 
England  are  of  a  tougher  texture.  A  hard  tem 
perature  had  been  formed  by  Saxon  and  Saxon- 
Dane,  and  such  of  these  French  or  Normans  as 
could  reach  it  were  naturalized  in  every  sense. 

All  the  admirable  expedients  or  means  hit  upon 
in  England  must  be  looked  at  as  growths  or  irre 
sistible  offshoots  of  the  expanding  mind  of  the  race. 
A  man  of  that  brain  thinks  and  acts  thus ;  and  his 
neighbor,  being  afflicted  with  the  same  kind  of 
brain,  though  he  is  rich,  and  called  a  baron,  or  a 
duke,  thinks  the  same  thing,  and  is  ready  to  allow 
the  justice  of  the  thought  and  act  in  his  retainer  or 
tenant,  though  sorely  against  his  baronial  or  ducal 
will. 

The  island  was  renowned  in  antiquity  for  its 
breed  of  mastiffs,  so  fierce  that,  when  their  teeth 
were  set,  you  must  cut  their  heads  off  to  part  them. 
The  man  was  like  his  dog.  The  people  have  that 
nervous,  bilious  temperament,  which  is  known  by 

57 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

medical  men  to  resist  every  means  employed  to 
make  its  possessor  subservient  to  the  will  of  others. 
The  English  game  is  main  force  to  main  force,  the 
planting  of  foot  to  foot,  fair  play  and  open  field, — 
a  rough  tug  without  trick  or  dodging,  till  one  or 
both  come  to  pieces.  King  Ethelwald  spoke  the 
language  of  his  race,  when  he  planted  himself  at 
Wimborne,  and  said,  '  he  would  do  one  of  two 
things,  or  there  live,  or  there  lie/  They  hate  craft 
and  subtlety.  They  neither  poison,  nor  waylay,  nor 
assassinate ;  and,  when  they  have  pounded  each 
other  to  a  poultice,  they  will  shake  hands  and  be 
friends  for  the  remainder  of  their  lives. 

You  shall  trace  these  Gothic  touches  at  school, 
at  country  fairs,  at  the  hustings,  and  in  Parliament. 
No  artifice,  no  breach  of  truth  and  plain  dealing, — 
not  so  much  as  secret  ballot,  is  suffered  in  the 
island.  In  Parliament,  the  tactics  of  the  opposition 
is  to  resist  every  step  of  the  government,  by  a 
pitiless  attack :  and  in  a  bargain,  no  prospect  of 
advantage  is  so  dear  to  the  merchant,  as  the  thought 
of  being  tricked  is  mortifying. 

Sir  Kenelm  Digby,  a  courtier  of  Charles  and 
James  who  won  the  sea-fight  of  Scanderoon,  was  a 
model  Englishman  in  his  day.  "His  person  was 
handsome  and  gigantic,  he  had  so  graceful  elocution 
and  noble  address  that,  had  he  been  dropt  out  of 
the  clouds  in  any  part  of  the  world,  he  would 
have  made  himself  respected  :  he  was  skilled  in  six 
tongues,  and  master  of  arts  and  arms."  1  Sir  Kenelm 
wrote  a  book,  "  Of  Bodies  and  of  Souls,"  in  which 
he  propounds  that  "Syllogisms  do  breed  or  rather 
are  all  the  variety  of  man's  life.  They  are  the  steps 
by  which  we  walk  in  all  our  businesses.  Man,  as 
he  is  man,  doth  nothing  else  but  weave  such  chains. 
58 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

Whatsoever  he  doth,  swarving  from  this  work,  he 
doth  as  deficient  from  the  nature  of  man  :  and,  if 
he  do  aught  beyond  this,  by  breaking  out  into 
divers  sorts  of  exterior  actions,  he  findeth,  never 
theless,  in  this  linked  sequel  of  simple  discourses, 
the  art,  the  cause,  the  rule,  the  bounds,  and  the 
model  of  it."  2 

There  spoke  the  genius  of  the  English  people. 
There  is  a  necessity  on  them  to  be  logical.  They 
would  hardly  greet  the  good  that  did  not  logically 
fall, — as  if  it  excluded  their  own  merit,  or  shook 
their  understandings.  They  are  jealous  of  minds 
that  have  much  facility  of  association,  from  an 
instinctive  fear  that  the  seeing  many  relations  to 
their  thought  might  impair  this  serial  continuity 
and  lucrative  concentration.  They  are  impatient 
of  genius,  or  of  minds  addicted  to  contemplation, 
and  cannot  conceal  their  contempt  for  sallies  of 
thought,  however  lawful,  whose  steps  they  can 
not  count  by  their  wonted  rule.  Neither  do  they 
reckon  better  a  syllogism  that  ends  in  syllogism. 
For  they  have  a  supreme  eye  to  facts,  and  theirs  is 
a  logic  that  brings  salt  to  soup,  hammer  to  nail,  oar 
to  boat,  the  logic  of  cooks,  carpenters,  and  chemists, 
following  the  sequence  of  nature,  and  one  on  which 
words  make  no  impression.  Their  mind  is  not 
dazzled  by  its  own  means,  but  locked  and  bolted 
to  results.  They  love  men  who,  like  Samuel  John 
son,  a  doctor  in  the  schools,  would  jump  out  of  his 
syllogism  the  instant  his  major  proposition  was  in 
danger,  to  save  that,  at  all  hazards.  Their  practical 
vision  is  spacious,  and  they  can  hold  many  threads 
without  entangling  them.  All  the  steps  they  orderly 
take;  but  with  the  high  logic  of  never  confound 
ing  the  minor  and  major  proposition;  keeping  their 

59 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

eye  on  their  aim,  in  all  the  complicity  and  delay 
incident  to  the  several  series  of  means  they  employ. 
There  is  room  in  their  minds  for  this  and  that, — a 
science  of  degrees.  In  the  courts,  the  independence 
of  the  judges  and  the  loyalty  of  the  suitors  are 
equally  excellent.  In  Parliament,  they  have  hit  on 
that  capital  invention  of  freedom,  a  constitutional 
opposition.  And  when  courts  and  Parliament  are 
both  deaf,  the  plaintiff  is  not  silenced.  Calm,  patient, 
his  weapon  of  defence  from  year  to  year  is  the 
obstinate  reproduction  of  the  grievance  with  calcu 
lations  and  estimates.  But,  meantime,  he  is  drawing 
numbers  and  money  to  his  opinion,  resolved  that 
if  all  remedy  fails,  right  of  revolution  is  at  the 
bottom  of  his  charter-box.  They  are  bound  to  see 
their  measure  carried,  and  stick  to  it  through  ages 
of  defeat. 

Into  this  English  logic,  however,  an  infusion  of 
justice  enters,  not  so  apparent  in  other  races, — a 
belief  in  the  existence  of  two  sides,  and  the  resolu 
tion  to  see  fair  play.  There  is  on  every  question 
an  appeal  from  the  assertion  of  the  parties  to  the 
proof  of  what  is  asserted.  They  are  impious  in  their 
scepticism  of  a  theory,  but  kiss  the  dust  before  a 
fact.  Is  it  a  machine,  is  it  a  charter,  is  it  a  boxer 
in  the  ring,  is  it  a  candidate  on  the  hustings, — the 
universe  of  Englishmen  will  suspend  their  judgment 
until  the  trial  can  be  had.  They  are  not  to  be  led 
by  a  phrase,  they  want  a  working  plan,  a  working 
machine,  a  working  constitution,  and  will  sit  out 
the  trial,  and  abide  by  the  issue,  and  reject  all 
preconceived  theories.  In  politics  they  put  blunt 
questions,  which  must  be  answered;  who  is  to  pay 
the  taxes?  what  will  you  do  for  trade?  what  for 
corn  ?  what  for  the  spinner  ? 
60 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

This  singular  fairness  and  its  results  strike  the 
French  with  surprise.  Philip  de  Gommines  says, 
"  Now,  in  my  opinion,  among  all  the  sovereignties 
I  know  in  the  world,  that  in  which  the  public  good 
is  best  attended  to,  and  the  least  violence  exercised 
on  the  people,  is  that  of  England."  Life  is  safe, 
and  personal  rights  ;  and  what  is  freedom,  without 
security?  whilst,  in  France,  'fraternity,'  'equality,' 
and  'indivisible  unity,'  are  names  for  assassination. 
Montesquieu  said,  "  England  is  the  freest  country 
in  the  world.  If  a  man  in  England  had  as  many 
enemies  as  hairs  on  his  head,  no  harm  would  happen 
to  him." 

Their  self-respect,  their  faith  in  causation,  and 
their  realistic  logic  or  coupling  of  means  to  ends, 
have  given  them  the  leadership  of  the  modern  world. 
Montesquieu  said,  "  No  people  have  true  common 
sense  but  those  who  are  born  in  England."  This 
common  sense  is  a  perception  of  all  the  conditions 
of  our  earthly  existence,  of  laws  that  can  be  stated, 
and  of  laws  that  cannot  be  stated,  or  that  are 
learned  only  by  practice,  in  which  allowance  for 
friction  is  made.  They  are  impious  in  their  scepti 
cism  of  theory,  and  in  high  departments  they  are 
cramped  and  sterile.  But  the  unconditional  sur 
render  to  facts,  and  the  choice  of  means  to  reach 
their  ends,  are  as  admirable  as  with  ants  and  bees. 

The  bias  of  the  nation  is  a  passion  for  utility. 
They  love  the  lever,  the  screw,  and  pulley,  the 
Flanders  draught-horse,  the  waterfall,  wind-mills, 
tide-mills  ;  the  sea  and  the  wind  to  bear  their  freight 
ships.  More  than  the  diamond  Koh-i-noor,  which 
glitters  among  their  crown  jewels,  they  prize  that 
dull  pebble  which  is  wiser  than  a  man,  whose  poles 
turn  themselves  to  the  poles  of  the  world,  and  whose 

61 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

axis  is  parallel  to  the  axis  of  the  world.  Now,  their 
toys  are  steam  and  galvanism.  They  are  heavy  at 
the  fine  arts,  but  adroit  at  the  coarse  ;  not  good  in 
jewelry  or  mosaics,  but  the  best  iron-masters,  col 
liers,  wool-combers,  and  tanners  in  Europe.  They 
apply  themselves  to  agriculture,  to  draining,  to 
resisting  encroachments  of  sea,  wind,  travelling 
sands,  cold  and  wet  sub-soil ;  to  fishery,  to  manu 
facture  of  indispensable  staples, — salt,  plumbago, 
leather,  wool,  glass,  pottery,  and  brick, — to  bees 
and  silkworms  ; — and  by  their  steady  combinations 
they  succeed.  A  manufacturer  sits  down  to  dinner 
in  a  suit  of  clothes  which  was  wool  on  a  sheep's 
back  at  sunrise.  You  dine  with  a  gentleman  on 
venison,  pheasant,  quail,  pigeons,  poultry,  mush 
rooms,  and  pine-apples,  all  the  growth  of  his  estate. 
They  are  neat  husbands  for  ordering  all  their  tools 
pertaining  to  house  and  field.  All  are  well  kept. 
There  is  no  want  and  no  waste.  They  study  use 
and  fitness  in  their  building,  in  the  order  of  their 
dwellings,  and  in  their  dress.  The  Frenchman 
invented  the  ruffle,  the  Englishman  added  the  shirt. 
The  Englishman  wears  a  sensible  coat  buttoned  to 
the  chin,  of  rough  but  solid  and  lasting  texture.  If 
he  is  a  lord,  he  dresses  a  little  worse  than  a  com 
moner.  They  have  diffused  the  taste  for  plain  sub 
stantial  hats,  shoes,  and  coats  through  Europe. 
They  think  him  the  best-dressed  man,  whose  dress 
is  so  fit  for  his  use  that  you  cannot  notice  or 
remember  to  describe  it. 

They  secure  the  essentials  in  their  diet,  in  their 
arts,  and  manufactures.  Every  article  of  cutlery 
shows,  in  its  shape,  thought  and  long  experience  of 
workmen.  They  put  the  expense  in  the  right  place, 
as,  in  their  sea-steamers,  in  the  solidity  of  the 
62 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

machinery  and  the  strength  of  the  boat.  The  admir 
able  equipment  of  their  arctic  ships  carries  London 
to  the  pole.  They  build  roads,  aqueducts,  warm 
and  ventilate  houses.  And  they  have  impressed 
their  directness  and  practical  habit  on  modern 
civilization. 

In  trade,  the  Englishman  believes  that  nobody 
breaks  who  ought  not  to  break ;  and  that,  if  he 
do  not  make  trade  everything,  it  will  make  him 
nothing ;  and  acts  on  this  belief.  The  spirit  of 
system,  attention  to  details,  and  the  subordination 
of  details,  or  the  not  driving  things  too  finely  (which 
is  charged  on  the  Germans),  constitute  that  despatch 
of  business  which  makes  the  mercantile  power  of 
England. 

In  war,  the  Englishman  looks  to  his  means.  He 
is  of  the  opinion  of  Givilis,  his  German  ancestor, 
whom  Tacitus  reports  as  holding  "  that  the  gods  are 
on  the  side  of  the  strongest ; " — a  sentence  which 
Bonaparte  unconsciously  translated,  when  he  said, 
"that  he  had  noticed,  that  Providence  always 
favored  the  heaviest  battalion."  Their  military 
science  propounds  that  if  the  weight  of  the  advanc 
ing  column  is  greater  than  that  of  the  resisting,  the 
latter  is  destroyed.  Therefore  Wellington,  when  he 
came  to  the  army  in  Spain,  had  every  man  weighed, 
first  with  accoutrements,  and  then  without;  believ 
ing  that  the  force  of  an  army  depended  on  the 
weight  and  power  of  the  individual  soldiers,  in  spite 
of  cannon.  Lord  Palmerston  told  the  House  of 
Commons  that  more  care  is  taken  of  the  health  and 
comfort  of  English  troops  than  of  any  other  troops 
in  the  world,  and  that  hence  the  English  can  put 
more  men  into  the  rank,  on  the  day  of  action,  on 
the  field  of  battle,  than  any  other  army.  Before  the 

63 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

bombardment  of  the  Danish  forts  in  the  Baltic, 
Nelson  spent  day  after  day,  himself  in  the  boats, 
on  the  exhausting  service  of  sounding  the  channel. 
Clerk  of  Eldin's  celebrated  manoeuvre  of  breaking 
the  line  of  sea-battle,  and  Nelson's  feat  of  doubling, 
or  stationing  his  ships  one  on  the  outer  bow  and 
another  on  the  outer  quarter  of  each  of  the  enemy's, 
were  only  translations  into  naval  tactics  of  Bona 
parte's  rule  of  concentration.  Lord  Gollingwood 
was  accustomed  to  tell  his  men  that,  if  they  could 
fire  three  well-directed  broadsides  in  five  minutes, 
no  vessel  could  resist  them ;  and,  from  constant 
practice,  they  came  to  do  it  in  three  minutes  and 
a  half. 

But  conscious  that  no  race  of  better  men  exists, 
they  rely  most  on  the  simplest  means ;  and  do  not 
like  ponderous  and  difficult  tactics,  but  delight  to 
bring  the  affair  hand  to  hand,  where  the  victory  lies 
with  the  strength,  courage,  and  endurance  of  the 
individual  combatants.  They  adopt  every  improve 
ment  in  rig,  in  motor,  in  weapons,  but  they  funda 
mentally  believe  that  the  best  stratagem  in  naval 
war  is  to  lay  your  ship  close  alongside  of  the  enemy's 
ship,  and  bring  all  your  guns  to  bear  on  him  until 
you  or  he  go  to  the  bottom.  This  is  the  old  fashion, 
which  never  goes  out  of  fashion,  neither  in  nor  out 
of  England. 

It  is  not  usually  a  point  of  honor,  nor  a  religious 
sentiment,  and  never  any  whim  that  they  will  shed 
their  blood  for ;  but  usually  property,  and  right 
measured  by  property,  that  breeds  revolution. 
They  have  no  Indian  taste  for  a  tomahawk-dance, 
no  French  taste  for  a  badge  or  a  proclamation. 
The  Englishman  is  peaceably  minding  his  business, 
and  earning  his  day's  wages.  But  if  you  offer  to  lay 
64 


hand  on  his  day's  wages,  on  his  cow,  or  his  right 
in  common,  or  his  shop,  he  will  fight  to  the  Judg 
ment.  Magna-charta,  jury-trial,  habeas-corpus,  star- 
chamber,  ship-money,  Popery,  Plymouth-colony, 
American  Revolution,  are  all  questions  involving 
a  yeoman's  right  to  his  dinner,  and,  except  as  touch 
ing  that,  would  not  have  lashed  the  British  nation 
to  rage  and  revolt. 

Whilst  they  are  thus  instinct  with  a  spirit  of  order, 
and  of  calculation,  it  must  be  owned  they  are  capable 
of'larger  views  ;  but  the  indulgence  is  expensive  to 
them,  costs  great  crises,  or  accumulations  of  men 
tal  power.  In  common  the  horse  works  best  with 
blinders.  Nothing  is  more  in  the  line  of  English 
thought,  than  our  unvarnished  Connecticut  ques 
tion,  "  Pray,  sir,  how  do  you  get  your  living  when 
you  are  at  home?" — The  questions  of  freedom,  of 
taxation,  of  privilege,  are  money  questions.  Heavy 
fellows,  steeped  in  beer  and  fleshpots,  they  are 
hard  of  hearing  and  dim  of  sight.  Their  drowsy 
minds  need  to  be  flagellated  by  war  and  trade  and 
politics  and  persecution.  They  cannot  well  read 
a  principle,  except  by  the  light  of  fagots  and  of 
burning  towns. 

Tacitus  says  of  the  Germans,  "  Powerful  only  in 
sudden  efforts,  they  are  impatient  of  toil  and  labor." 
This  highly  destined  race,  if  it  had  not  somewhere 
added  the  chamber  of  patience  to  its  brain,  would 
not  have  built  London.  I  know  not  from  which  of 
the  tribes  and  temperaments  that  went  to  the  com 
position  of  the  people  this  tenacity  was  supplied, 
but  they  clinch  every  nail  they  drive.  They  had 
no  running  for  luck,  and  no  immoderate  speed. 
They  spend  largely  on  their  fabric,  and  await  the 
slow  return.  Their  leather  lies  tanning  seven  years 
e  65 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

in  the  vat.  At  Rogers's  mills,  in  Sheffield,  where  I 
was  shown  the  process  of  making  a  razor  and  a 
penknife,  I  was  told  there  is  no  luck  in  making 
good  steel ;  that  they  make  no  mistakes,  every 
blade  in  the  hundred  and  in  the  thousand  is  good. 
And  that  is  characteristic  of  all  their  work, — no 
more  is  attempted  than  is  done. 

When  Thor  and  his  companions  arrive  at  Utgard, 
he  is  told  that  "  nobody  is  permitted  to  remain  here, 
unless  he  understand  some  art,  and  excel  in  it  all 
other  men."  The  same  question  is  still  put  to  the 
posterity  of  Thor.  A  nation  of  laborers,  every  man 
is  trained  to  some  one  art  or  detail,  and  aims  at 
perfection  in  that ;  not  content  unless  he  has  some 
thing  in  which  he  thinks  he  surpasses  all  other 
men.  He  would  rather  not  do  anything  at  all,  than 
not  do  it  well.  I  suppose  no  people  have  such 
thoroughness; — from  the  highest  to  the  lowest, 
every  man  meaning  to  be  master  of  his  art. 

"To  show  capacity,"  a  Frenchman  described  as 
the  end  of  a  speech  in  debate :  "  No,"  said  an 
Englishman,  "but  to  set  your  shoulder  at  the 
wheel, — to  advance  the  business."  Sir  Samuel 
Romilly  refused  to  speak  in  popular  assemblies, 
confining  himself  to  the  House  of  Commons,  where 
a  measure  can  be  carried  by  a  speech.  The  busi 
ness  of  the  House  of  Commons  is  conducted  by  a 
few  persons,  but  these  are  hard-worked.  Sir  Robert 
Peel  "knew  the  Blue  Books  by  heart."  His  col 
leagues  and  rivals  carry  Hansard  in  their  heads. 
The  high  civil  and  legal  offices  are  not  beds  of  ease, 
but  posts  which  exact  frightful  amounts  of  mental 
labor.  Many  of  our  great  leaders,  like  Pitt,  Canning, 
Castlereagh,  Romilly,  are  soon  worked  to  death. 
They  are  excellent  judges  in  England  of  a  good 
66 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

worker,  and  when  they  find  one  like  Clarendon, 
Sir  Philip  Warwick,  Sir  William  Coventry,  Ashley, 
Burke,  Thurlow,  Mansfield,  Pitt,  Eldon,  Peel,  or 
Russell,  there  is  nothing  too  good  or  too  high  for 
him. 

They  have  a  wonderful  heat  in  the  pursuit  of  a 
public  aim.  Private  persons  exhibit,  in  scientific 
and  antiquarian  researches,  the  same  pertinacity  as 
the  nation  showed  in  the  coalitions  in  which  it  yoked 
Europe  against  the  empire  of  Bonaparte,  one  after 
the  other  defeated,  and  still  renewed,  until  the  sixth 
hurled  him  from  his  seat. 

Sir  John  Herschel,  in  completion  of  the  work  of 
his  father,  who  had  made  the  catalogue  of  the  stars 
of  the  northern  hemisphere,  expatriated  himself  for 
years  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  finished  his  in 
ventory  of  the  southern  heaven,  came  home,  and 
redacted  it  in  eight  years  more ; — a  work  whose 
value  does  not  begin  until  thirty  years  have  elapsed, 
and  thenceforward  a  record  to  all  ages  of  the  highest 
import.  The  Admiralty  sent  out  the  Arctic  expedi 
tions  year  after  year,  in  search  of  Sir  John  Franklin, 
until,  at  last,  they  have  threaded  their  way  through 
polar  pack  and  Behring's  Straits,  and  solved  the 
geographical  problem.  Lord  Elgin,  at  Athens,  saw 
the  imminent  ruin  of  the  Greek  remains,  set  up  his 
scaffoldings,  in  spite  of  epigrams,  and,  after  five 
years'  labor  to  collect  them,  got  his  marbles  on 
shipboard.  The  ship  struck  a  rock,  and  went  to 
the  bottom.  He  had  them  all  fished  up,  by  divers, 
at  a  vast  expense,  and  brought  to  London ;  not 
knowing  that  Haydon,  Fuseli,  and  Canova,  and 
all  good  heads  in  all  the  world,  were  to  be  his 
applauders.  In  the  same  spirit  were  the  excava 
tion  and  research  by  Sir  Charles  Fellowes,  for 

67 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

the  Xanthian  monument ;  and  of  Layard,  for  his 
Nineveh  sculptures. 

The  nation  sits  in  the  immense  city  they  have 
builded,  a  London  extended  into  every  man's  mind, 
though  he  live  in  Van  Dieman's  Land  or  Capetown. 
Faithful  performance  of  what  is  undertaken  to  be 
performed,  they  honor  in  themselves,  and  exact  in 
others,  as  certificate  of  equality  with  themselves. 
The  modern  world  is  theirs.  They  have  made  and 
make  it  day  by  day.  The  commercial  relations  of 
the  world  are  so  intimately  drawn  to  London,  that 
every  dollar  on  earth  contributes  to  the  strength 
of  the  English  government.  And  if  all  the  wealth 
in  the  planet  should  perish  by  war  or  deluge,  they 
know  themselves  competent  to  replace  it. 

They  have  approved  their  Saxon  blood,  by  their 
sea-going  qualities;  their  descent  from  Odin's 
smiths,  by  their  hereditary  skill  in  working  in  iron  ; 
their  British  birth,  by  husbandry  and  immense 
wheat  harvests;  and  justified  their  occupancy  of 
the  centre  of  habitable  land,  by  their  supreme  ability 
and  cosmopolitan  spirit.  They  have  tilled,  builded, 
forged,  spun,  and  woven.  They  have  made  the 
island  a  thoroughfare;  and  London  a  shop,  a  law- 
court,  a  record-office,  and  scientific  bureau,  invit 
ing  to  strangers;  a  sanctuary  to  refugees  of  every 
political  and  religious  opinion ;  and  such  a  city, 
that  almost  every  active  man,  in  any  nation,  finds 
himself,  at  one  time  or  other,  forced  to  visit  it. 

In  every  path  of  practical  activity,  they  have 
gone  even  with  the  best.  There  is  no  secret  of  war, 
in  which  they  have  not  shown  mastery.  The  steam- 
chamber  of  Watt,  the  locomotive  of  Stephenson,  the 
cotton-mule  of  Roberts,  perform  the  labor  of  the 
world.  There  is  no  department  of  literature,  of 
68 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

science,  or  of  useful  art,  in  which  they  have  not 
produced  a  first-rate  book.  It  is  England,  whose 
opinion  is  waited  for  on  the  merit  of  a  new  inven 
tion,  an  improved  science.  And  in  the  complica 
tions  of  the  trade  and  politics  of  their  vast  empire, 
they  have  been  equal  to  every  exigency,  with 
counsel  and  with  conduct.  Is  it  their  luck,  or  is  it 
in  the  chambers  of  their  brain, — it  is  their  com 
mercial  advantage,  that  whatever  light  appears  in 
better  method  or  happy  invention,  breaks  out  in 
their  race.  They  are  a  family  to  which  a  destiny 
attaches,  and  the  Banshee  has  sworn  that  a  male 
heir  shall  never  be  wanting.  They  have  a  wealth 
of  men  to  fill  important  posts,  and  the  vigilance  of 
party  criticism  insures  the  selection  of  a  competent 
person. 

A  proof  of  the  energy  of  the  British  people,  is  the 
highly  artificial  construction  of  the  whole  fabric. 
The  climate  and  geography,  I  said,  were  factitious, 
as  if  the  hands  of  man  had  arranged  the  conditions. 
The  same  character  pervades  the  whole  kingdom. 
Bacon  said,  "  Rome  was  a  state  not  subject  to  para 
doxes;"  but  England  subsists  by  antagonisms  and 
contradictions.  The  foundations  of  its  greatness  are 
the  rolling  waves ;  and,  from  first  to  last,  it  is  a 
museum  of  anomalies.  This  foggy  and  rainy  country 
furnishes  the  world  with  astronomical  observa 
tions.  Its  short  rivers  do  not  afford  water-power, 
but  the  land  shakes  under  the  thunder  of  the  mills. 
There  is  no  gold  mine  of  any  importance,  but  there 
is  more  gold  in  England  than  in  all  other  countries. 
It  is  too  far  north  for  the  culture  of  the  vine,  but 
the  wines  of  all  countries  are  in  its  docks.  The 
French  Gomte  deLauraguais  said, "  No  fruit  ripens 

69 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

in  England  but  a  baked  apple ; "  but  oranges  and 
pine-apples  are  as  cheap  in  London  as  in  the 
Mediterranean.  The  "Mark -Lane  Express"  or 
the  Custom  House  Returns  bear  out  to  the  letter 
the  vaunt  of  Pope, 

Let  India  boast  her  palms,  nor  envy  we 

The  weeping  amber  nor  the  spicy  tree, 

While,  by  our  oaks,  those  precious  loads  are  borne. 

And  realms  commanded  which  those  trees  adorn. 

The  native  cattle  are  extinct,  but  the  island  is  full 
of  artificial  breeds.  The  agriculturist  Bakewell 
created  sheep  and  cows  and  horses  to  order,  and 
breeds  in  which  everything  was  omitted  but  what 
is  economical.  The  cow  is  sacrificed  to  her  bag, 
the  ox  to  his  sirloin.  Stall-feeding  makes  sperm- 
mills  of  the  cattle,  and  converts  the  stable  to  a 
chemical  factory.  The  rivers,  lakes,  and  ponds, 
too  much  fished,  or  obstructed  by  factories,  are 
artificially  filled  with  the  eggs  of  salmon,  turbot, 
and  herring. 

Chat  Moss  and  the  fens  of  Lincolnshire  and  Cam 
bridgeshire  are  unhealthy  and  too  barren  to  pay 
rent.  By  cylindrical  tiles,  and  guttapercha  tubes, 
five  millions  of  acres  of  bad  land  have  been  drained 
and  put  on  equality  with  the  best,  for  rape-culture 
and  grass.  The  climate  too,  which  was  already 
believed  to  have  become  milder  and  drier  by  the 
enormous  consumption  of  coal,  is  so  far  reached  by 
this  new  action,  that  fogs  and  storms  are  said  to  dis 
appear.  In  due  course,  all  England  will  be  drained, 
and  rise  a  second  time  out  of  the  waters.  The  latest 
step  was  to  call  in  the  aid  of  steam  to  agriculture. 
Steam  is  almost  an  Englishman.  I  do  not  know 
but  they  will  send  him  to  Parliament  next,  to  make 
70 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

laws.  He  weaves,  forges,  saws,  pounds,  fans,  and 
now  he  must  pump,  grind,  dig,  and  plough  for  the 
farmer.  The  markets  created  by  the  manufacturing 
population  have  erected  agriculture  into  a  great 
thriving  and  spending  industry.  The  value  of  the 
houses  in  Britain  is  equal  to  the  value  of  the  soil. 
Artificial  aids  of  all  kinds  are  cheaper  than  the 
natural  resources.  No  man  can  afford  to  walk, 
when  the  parliamentary-train  carries  him  for  a 
penny  a  mile.  Gas-burners  are  cheaper  than  day 
light  in  numberless  floors  in  the  cities.  All  the 
houses  in  London  buy  their  water.  The  English 
trade  does  not  exist  for  the  exportation  of  native 
products,  but  on  its  manufactures,  or  the  making 
well  everything  which  is  ill  made  elsewhere.  They 
make  ponchos  for  the  Mexican,  bandannas  for  the 
Hindoo,  ginseng  for  the  Chinese,  beads  for  the 
Indian,  laces  for  the  Flemings,  telescopes  for  astro 
nomers,  cannons  for  kings. 

The  Board  of  Trade  caused  the  best  models  of 
Greece  and  Italy  to  be  placed  within  the  reach  of 
every  manufacturing  population.  They  caused  to  be 
translated  from  foreign  languages  and  illustrated  by 
elaborate  drawings,  the  most  approved  works  of 
Munich,  Berlin,  and  Paris.  They  have  ransacked 
Italy  to  find  new  forms,  to  add  a  grace  to  the  pro 
ducts  of  their  looms,  their  potteries,  and  their 
foundries.3 

The  nearer  we  look,  the  more  artificial  is  their 
social  system.  Their  law  is  a  network  of  fictions. 
Their  property,  a  scrip  or  certificate  of  right  to  in 
terest  on  money  that  no  man  ever  saw.  Their  social 
classes  are  made  by  statute.  Their  ratios  of  power 
and  representation  are  historical  and  legal.  The  last 
Reform-bill tookaway  political powerfrom  a  mound, 

71 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

a  ruin,  and  a  stone-wall,  whilst  Birmingham  and  Man 
chester,  whose  mills  paid  for  the  wars  of  Europe,  had 
no  representative.  Purity  in  the  elective  Parliament 
is  secured  by  the  purchase  of  seats.4  Foreign  power 
is  kept  by  armed  colonies ;  power  at  home,  by  a 
standing  army  of  police.  The  pauper  lives  better 
than  the  free  laborer;  the  thief  better  than  the 
pauper  ;  and  the  transported  felon  better  than  the 
one  under  imprisonment.  The  crimes  are  factitious, 
as  smuggling,  poaching,  non-conformity,  heresy, 
and  treason.  Better,  they  say  in  England,  kill  a 
man  than  a  hare.  The  sovereignty  of  the  seas  is 
maintained  by  the  impressment  of  seamen.  "The 
impressment  of  seamen,"  said  Lord  Eldon,  "is  the 
life  of  our  navy."  Solvency  is  maintained  by  means 
of  a  national  debt,  on  the  principle,  'If  you  will 
not  lend  me  the  money,  how  can  I  pay  you  ?"  For 
the  administration  of  justice,  Sir  Samuel  Romilly's 
expedient  for  clearing  the  a -Tears  of  business  in 
Chancery,  was,  the  Chancellor's  staying  away  en 
tirely  from  his  court.  Their  system  of  education 
is  factitious.  The  Universities  galvanize  dead  lan 
guages  into  a  semblance  of  life.  Their  church  is 
artificial.  The  manners  and  customs  of  society  are 
artificial ; — made-up  men  with  made-up  manners ; — 
and  thus  the  whole  is  Birminghamized,  and  we  have 
a  nation  whose  existence  is  a  work  of  art ; — a  cold, 
barren,  almost  arctic  isle,  being  made  the  most 
fruitful,  luxurious,  and  imperial  land  in  the  whole 
earth. 

Man  in  England  submits  to  be  a  product  of  poli 
tical  economy.  On  a  bleak  moor,  a  mill  is  built,  a 
banking-house  is  opened,  and  men  come  in,  as- 
water  in  a  sluice-way,  and  towns  and  cities  rise. 
Man  is  made  as  a  Birmingham  button.  The  rapid 
72 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

doubling  of  the  population  dates  from  Watt's  steam- 
engine.  A  landlord,  who  owns  a  province,  says, 
"  The  tenantry  are  unprofitable ;  let  me  have 
sheep."  He  unroofs  the  houses,  and  ships  the 
population  to  America.  The  nation  is  accustomed 
to  the  instantaneous  creation  of  wealth.  It  is  the 
maxim  of  their  economists,  "that  the  greater  part 
in  value  of  the  wealth  now  existing  in  England  has 
been  produced  by  human  hands  within  the  last 
twelve  months."  Meantime,  three  or  four  days' 
rain  will  reduce  hundreds  to  starving  in  London. 

One  secret  of  their  power  is  their  mutual  good 
understanding.  Not  only  good  minds  are  born 
among  them,  but  all  the  people  have  good  minds. 
Every  nation  has  yielded  some  good  wit,  if,  as  has 
chanced  to  many  tribes,  only  one.  But  the  intel 
lectual  organization  of  the  English  admits  a  com- 
municableness  of  knowledge  and  ideas  among  them 
all.  An  electric  touch  by  any  of  their  national 
ideas,  melts  them  into  one  family,  and  brings  the 
hoards  of  power  which  their  individuality  is  always 
hiving,  into  use  and  play  for  all.  Is  it  the  smallness 
of  the  country,  or  is  it  the  pride  and  affection  of 
race, — they  have  solidarity,  or  responsibleness,  and 
trust  in  each  other. 

Their  minds,  like  wool,  admit  of  a  dye  which  is 
more  lasting  than  the  cloth.  They  embrace  their 
cause  with  more  tenacity  than  their  life.  Though 
not  military,  yet  every  common  subject  by  the  poll 
is  fit  to  make  a  soldier  of.  These  private  reserved 
mute  family-men  can  adopt  a  public  end  with  all 
their  heat,  and  this  strength  of  affection  makes  the 
romance  of  their  heroes.  The  difference  of  rank 
does  not  divide  the  national  heart.  The  Danish 

73 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

poet  Ohlenschlager  complains  that  who  writes  in 
Danish  writes  to  two  hundred  readers.  In  Ger 
many,  there  is  one  speech  for  the  learned,  and 
another  for  the  masses,  to  that  extent  that,  it  is 
said,  no  sentiment  or  phrase  from  the  works  of  any 
great  German  writer  is  ever  heard  among  the  lower 
classes.  But  in  England,  the  language  of  the  noble 
is  the  language  of  the  poor.  In  Parliament,  in  pul 
pits,  in  theatres,  when  the  speakers  rise  to  thought 
and  passion,  the  language  becomes  idiomatic ;  the 
people  in  the  street  best  understand  the  best  words. 
And  their  language  seems  drawn  from  the  Bible, 
the  common  law,  and  the  works  of  Shakspeare, 
Bacon,  Milton,  Pope,  Young,  Cowper,  Burns,  and 
Scott.  The  island  has  produced  two  or  three  of 
the  greatest  men  that  ever  existed,  but  they  were 
not  solitary  in  their  own  time.  Men  quickly  em 
bodied  what  Newton  found  out,  in  Greenwich 
observatories,  and  practical  navigation.  The  boys 
know  all  that  Hutton  knew  of  strata,  or  Dalton 
of  atoms,  or  Harvey  of  blood-vessels ;  and  these 
studies,  once  dangerous,  are  in  fashion.  So  what 
is  invented  or  known  in  agriculture,  or  in  trade,  or 
in  war,  or  in  art,  or  in  literature,  and  antiquities. 
A  great  ability,  not  amassed  on  a  few  giants,  but 
poured  into  the  general  mind,  so  that  each  of  them 
could  at  a  pinch  stand  in  the  shoes  of  the  other; 
and  they  are  more  bound  in  character,  than  diffe 
renced  in  ability  or  in  rank.  The  laborer  is  a 
possible  lord.  The  lord  is  a  possible  basket-maker. 
Every  man  carries  the  English  system  in  his  brain, 
knows  what  is  confided  to  him,  and  does  therein 
the  best  he  can.  The  chancellor  carries  England 
on  his  mace,  the  midshipman  at  the  point  of  his 
dirk,  the  smith  on  his  hammer,  the  cook  in  the 
74 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

bowl  of  his  spoon ;  the  postilion  cracks  his  whip 
for  England,  and  the  sailor  times  his  oars  to  "  God 
save  the  King  ! "  The  very  felons  have  their  pride 
in  each  other's  English  stanchness.  In  politics  and 
in  war,  they  hold  together  as  by  hooks  of  steel. 
The  charm  in  Nelson's  history  is  the  unselfish 
greatness  ;  the  assurance  of  being  supported  to  the 
uttermost  by  those  whom  he  supports  to  the  utter 
most.  Whilst  they  are  some  ages  ahead  of  the  rest 
of  the  world  in  the  art  of  living ;  whilst  in  some 
directions  they  do  not  represent  the  modern  spirit, 
but  constitute  it, — this  vanguard  of  civility  and 
power  they  coldly  hold,  marching  in  phalanx,  lock- 
step,  foot  after  foot,  file  after  file  of  heroes,  ten 
thousand  deep. 


NOTES 

1  Antony  Wood. 
"  Man's  Soule,"  p.  29. 

3  See  "  Memorial  of  H.  Greenough"  p.  66.     New 
York,  1853. 

4  Sir  S.  Romilly,  purest  of  English  patriots,  decided 
that  the  only  independent  mode  of  entering  Parliament 
was  to  buy  a  seat,  and  he  bought  Horsham. 


75 


CHAPTER  VI.  MANNERS 

I    FIND  the  Englishman  to  be  him  of  all  men 
who  stands  firmest  in  his  shoes.    They  have 
in  themselves  what  they  value  in  their  horses, 
mettle  and  bottom.    On  the  day  of  my  arrival 
at  Liverpool,  a  gentleman,  in  describing  to  me  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  happened  to  say,  "Lord 
Clarendon  has  pluck  like  a  cock,  and  will  fight  till 
he  dies ; "  and  what  I  heard  first  I  heard  last,  and 
the  one  thing  the  English  value  is  pluck.    The  cab 
men  have  it ;  the  merchants  have  it ;  the  bishops 
have  it;  the  women  have  it;  the  journals  have  it;  the 
'  Times"newspaper,  they  say,  is  the  pluckiest  thing  in 
England,  and  Sydney  Smith  had  made  it  a  proverb 
that  little  Lord  John  Russell,  the  minister,  would  take 
the  command  of  the  Channel  fleet  to-morrow. 

They  require  you  to  dare  to  be  of  your  own 
opinion,  and  they  hate  the  practical  cowards  who 
cannot  in  affairs  answer  directly  yes  or  no.  They 
dare  to  displease,  nay,  they  will  let  you  break  all 
the  commandments,  if  you  do  it  natively,  and  with 
spirit.  You  must  be  somebody  ;  then  you  may  do 
this  or  that,  as  you  will. 

Machinery  has  been  applied  to  all  work,  and 
carried  to  such  perfection,  that  little  is  left  for  the 
men  but  to  mind  the  engines  and  feed  the  furnaces. 
But  the  machines  require  punctual  service,  and, 
as  they  never  tire,  they  prove  too  much  for  their 
tenders.  Mines,  forges,  mills,  breweries,  railroads, 
steam-pump,  steam-plough,  drill  of  regiments,  drill 
of  police,  rule  of  court,  and  shop-rule  have  operated 
to  give  a  mechanical  regularity  to  all  the  habit  and 
action  of  men.  A  terrible  machine  has  possessed 
itself  of  the  ground,  the  air,  the  men  and  women, 
and  hardly  even  thought  is  free. 

77 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

The  mechanical  might  and  organization  requires 
in  the  people  constitution  and  answering  spirits: 
and  he  who  goes  among  them  must  have  some 
weight  of  metal.  At  last,  you  take  your  hint  from 
the  fury  of  life  you  find,  and  say,  one  thing  is  plain, 
this  is  no  country  for  fainthearted  people :  don't 
creep  about  diffidently  ;  make  up  your  mind  ;  take 
your  own  course,  and  you  shall  find  respect  and 
furtherance. 

It  requires,  men  say,  a  good  constitution  to  travel 
in  Spain.  I  say  as  much  of  England,  for  other 
cause,  simply  on  account  of  the  vigor  and  brawn  of 
the  people.  Nothing  but  the  most  serious  business 
could  give  one  any  counterweight  to  these  Bare 
sarks,  though  they  were  only  to  order  eggs  and 
muffins  for  their  breakfast.  The  Englishman  speaks 
•with  all  his  body.  His  elocution  is  stomachic, — 
as  the  American's  is  labial.  The  Englishman  is  very 
petulant  and  precise  about  his  accommodation  at 
inns,  and  on  the  roads ;  a  quiddle  about  his  toast 
and  his  chop,  and  every  species  of  convenience, 
and  loud  and  pungent  in  his  expressions  of  im 
patience  at  any  neglect.  His  vivacity  betrays  itself, 
at  all  points,  in  his  manners,  in  his  respiration,  and 
the  inarticulate  noises  he  makes  in  clearing  the 
throat ; — all  significant  of  burly  strength.  He  has 
stamina  ;  he  can  take  the  initiative  in  emergencies. 
He  has  that  aplomb,  which  results  from  a  good  ad 
justment  of  the  moral  and  physical  nature,  and  the 
obedience  of  all  the  powers  to  the  will ;  as  if  the 
axes  of  his  eyes  were  united  to  his  backbone,  and 
only  moved  with  the  trunk. 

This  vigor  appears  in  the  incuriosity,  and  stony 
neglect,  each  of  every  other.  Each  man  walks, 
eats,  drinks,  shaves,  dresses,  gesticulates,  and,  in 
78 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

every  manner,  acts  and  suffers  without  reference 
to  the  bystanders,  in  his  own  fashion,  only  careful 
not  to  interfere  with  them,  or  annoy  them ;  not 
that  he  is  trained  to  neglect  the  eyes  of  his  neigh 
bors, — he  is  really  occupied  with  his  own  affair, 
and  does  not  think  of  them.  Every  man  in  this 
polished  country  consults  only  his  convenience, 
as  much  as  a  solitary  pioneer  in  Wisconsin.  I  know 
not  where  any  personal  eccentricity  is  so  freely 
allowed,  and  no  man  gives  himself  any  concern 
with  it.  An  Englishman  walks  in  a  pouring  rain, 
swinging  his  closed  umbrella  like  a  walking-stick ; 
wears  a  wig,  or  a  shawl,  or  a  saddle,  or  stands  on 
his  head,  and  no  remark  is  made.  And  as  he  has 
been  doing  this  for  several  generations,  it  is  now  in 
the  blood. 

In  short,  every  one  of  these  islanders  is  an  island 
himself,  safe,  tranquil,  incommunicable.  In  a  com 
pany  of  strangers,  you  would  think  him  deaf;  fois 
eyes  never  wander  from  his  table  and  newspaper. 
He  is  never  betrayed  into  any  curiosity  or  unbe 
coming  emotion.  They  have  all  been  trained  in  one 
severe  school  of  manners,  and  never  put  off  the 
harness.  He  does  not  give  his  hand.  He  does  not 
let  you  meet  his  eye.  It  is  almost  an  affront  to  look 
a  man  in  the  face,  without  being  introduced.  In 
mixed  or  in  select  companies  they  do  not  introduce 
persons ;  so  that  a  presentation  is  a  circumstance  as 
valid  as  a  contract.  Introductions  are  sacraments. 
He  withholds  his  name.  At  the  hotel,  he  is  hardly 
willing  to  whisper  it  to  the  clerk  at  the  book-office. 
If  he  give  you  his  private  address  on  a  card,  it  is  like 
an  avowal  of  friendship ;  and  his  bearing,  on  being 
introduced,  is  cold,  even  though  he  is  seeking  your 
acquaintance,  and  is  studying  how  he  shall  serve  you. 

79 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

It  was  an  odd  proof  of  this  impressive  energy 
that,  in  my  lectures,  I  hesitated  to  read  and  threw 
out  for  its  impertinence  many  a  disparaging  phrase, 
which  I  had  been  accustomed  to  spin,  about  poor, 
thin,  unable  mortals; — so  much  had  the  fine  phy 
sique  and  the  personal  vigor  of  this  robust  race 
worked  on  my  imagination. 

I  happened  to  arrive  in  England  at  the  moment 
of  a  commercial  crisis.  But  it  was  evident  that, 
let  who  will  fail,  England  will  not.  These  people 
have  sat  here  a  thousand  years,  and  here  will  con 
tinue  to  sit.  They  will  not  break  up,  or  arrive  at 
any  desperate  revolution,  like  their  neighbors;  for 
they  have  as  much  energy,  as  much  continence  of 
character  as  they  ever  had.  The  power  and  pos 
session  which  surround  them  are  their  own  creation, 
and  they  exert  the  same  commanding  industry  at 
this  moment. 

They  are  positive,  methodical,  cleanly,  and  formal, 
loving  routine,  and  conventional  ways  ;  loving  truth 
and  religion,  to  be  sure,  but  inexorable  on  points  of 
form.  All  the  world  praises  the  comfort  and  private 
appointments  of  an  English  inn,  and  of  English 
households.  You  are  sure  of  neatness  and  of  per 
sonal  decorum.  A  Frenchman  may  possibly  be 
clean  ;  an  Englishman  is  conscientiously  clean.  A 
certain  order  and  complete  propriety  is  found  in 
his  dress  and  in  his  belongings. 

Born  in  a  harsh  and  wet  climate,  which  keeps 
him  indoors  whenever  he  is  at  rest,  and  being  of  an 
affectionate  and  loyal  temper,  he  dearly  loves  his 
house.  If  he  is  rich,  he  buys  a  demesne  and  builds 
a  hall;  if  he  is  in  middle  condition,  he  spares  no 
expense  on  his  house.  Without,  it  is  all  planted : 
within,  it  is  wainscoted,  carved,  curtained, hung  with 
80 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

pictures,  and  filled  with  good  furniture.  'Tis  a  pas 
sion  which  survives  all  others,  to  deck  and  improve 
it.  Hither  he  brings  all  that  is  rare  and  costly,  and 
with  the  national  tendency  to  sit  fast  in  the  same 
spot  for  many  generations,  it  comes  to  be,  in  the 
course  of  time,  a  museum  of  heirlooms,  gifts,  and 
trophies  of  the  adventures  and  exploits  of  the  family. 
He  is  very  fond  of  silver  plate,  and,  though  he  have 
no  gallery  of  portraits  of  his  ancestors,  he  has  of  their 
punch-bowls  and  porringers.  Incredible  amounts  of 
plate  are  found  in  good  houses,  and  the  poorest  have 
some  spoon  or  saucepan,  gift  of  a  godmother,  saved 
out  of  better  times. 

An  English  family  consists  of  a  few  persons,  who, 
from  youth  to  age,  are  found  revolving  within  a  few 
feet  of  each  other,  as  if  tied  by  some  invisible  liga 
ture,  tense  as  that  cartilage  which  we  have  seen 
attaching  the  two  Siamese.  England  produces  under 
favorable  conditions  of  ease  and  culture  the  finest 
women  in  the  world.  And,  as  the  men  are  affec 
tionate  and  true-hearted,  the  women  inspire  and 
refine  them.  Nothing  can  be  more  delicate  without 
being  fantastical,  nothing  more  firm  and  based  in 
nature  and  sentiment,  than  the  courtship  and  mutual 
carriage  of  the  sexes.  The  song  of  1596  says,  "  The 
wife  of  every  Englishman  is  counted  blest."  The 
sentiment  of  Imogen  in  "  Gymbeline  "  is  copied  from 
English  nature ;  and  not  less  the  Portia  of  Brutus, 
the  Kate  Percy,  and  the  Desdemona.  The  romance 
does  not  exceed  the  height  of  noble  passion  in 
Mrs.  Lucy  Hutchinson,  or  in  Lady  Russell,  or  even 
as  one  discerns  through  the  plain  prose  of  Pepys's 
Diary,  the  sacred  habit  of  an  English  wife.  Sir 
Samuel  Romilly  could  not  bear  the  death  of  his 
wife.  Every  class  has  its  noble  and  tender  examples. 
f  81 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

Domesticity  is  the  taproot  which  enables  the 
nation  to  branch  wide  and  high.  The  motive  and 
end  of  their  trade  and  empire  is  to  guard  the  inde 
pendence  and  privacy  of  their  homes.  Nothing  so 
much  marks  their  manners  as  the  concentration  on 
their  household  ties.  This  domesticity  is  carried 
into  court  and  camp.  Wellington  governed  India 
and  Spain  and  his  own  troops,  and  fought  battles 
like  a  good  family-man,  paid  his  debts,  and,  though 
general  of  an  army  in  Spain,  could  not  stir  abroad 
for  fear  of  public  creditors.  This  taste  for  house 
and  parish  merits  has  of  course  its  doting  and  foolish 
side.  Mr.  Cobbett  attributes  the  huge  popularity 
of  Perceval,  prime  minister  in  1810,  to  the  fact  that 
he  was  wont  to  go  to  church,  every  Sunday,  with 
a  large  quarto  gilt  prayer-book  under  one  arm,  his 
wife  hanging  on  the  other,  and  followed  by  a  long 
brood  of  children. 

They  keep  their  old  customs,  costumes,  and 
pomps,  their  wig  and  mace,  sceptre  and  crown. 
The  Middle  Ages  still  lurk  in  the  streets  of  Lon 
don.  The  Knights  of  the  Bath  take  oath  to  defend 
injured  ladies ;  the  gold-stick-in-waiting  survives. 
They  repeated  the  ceremonies  of  the  eleventh  cen 
tury  in  the  coronation  of  the  present  Queen.  A 
hereditary  tenure  is  natural  to  them.  Offices  farms, 
trades,  and  traditions  descend  so.  Their  leases  run 
for  a  hundred  and  a  thousand  years.  Terms  of 
service  and  partnership  are  lifelong,  orare  inherited. 
"  Holdship  has  been  with  me,"  said  Lord  Eldon, 
"  eight-and-twenty  years,  knows  all  my  business 
and  books."  Antiquity  of  usage  is  sanction  enough. 
Wordsworth  says  of  the  small  freeholders  of  West 
moreland,  "  Many  of  these  humble  sons  of  the  hills 
had  a  consciousness  that  the  land  which  they  tilled 
82 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

had  for  more  than  five  hundred  years  been  pos 
sessed  by  men  of  the  same  name  and  blood."  The 
ship-carpenter  in  the  public  yards,  my  lord's  gar 
dener  and  porter,  have  been  there  for  more  than 
a  hundred  years,  grandfather,  father,  and  son. 

The  English  power  resides  also  in  their  dislike 
of  change.  They  have  difficulty  in  bringing  their 
reason  to  act,  and  on  all  occasions  use  their  memory 
first.  As  soon  as  they  have  rid  themselves  of  some 
grievance,  and  settled  the  better  practice,  they 
make  haste  to  fix  it  as  a  finality,  and  never  wish  to 
hear  of  alteration  more. 

Every  Englishman  is  an  embryonic  chancellor. 
His  instinct  is  to  search  for  a  precedent.  The 
favorite  phrase  of  their  law  is,  "a  custom  whereof 
the  memory  of  man  runneth  not  back  to  the  con 
trary."  The  barons  say,  "  Nolumus  mutari;  "  and  the 
cockneys  stifle  the  curiosity  of  the  foreigner  on 
the  reason  of  any  practice,  with  "  Lord,  sir,  it  was 
always  so."  They  hate  innovation.  Bacon  told 
them,  Time  was  the  right  reformer ;  Chatham, 
that  "confidence  was  a  plant  of  slow  growth;" 
Canning,  to  "  advance  with  the  times ; "  and  Wel 
lington,  that  "  habit  was  ten  times  nature."  All 
their  statesmen  learn  the  irresistibility  of  the  tide 
of  custom,  and  have  invented  many  fine  phrases  to 
cover  this  slowness  of  perception,  and  prehensility 
of  tail. 

A  seashell  should  be  the  crest  of  England,  not 
•only  because  it  represents  a  power  built  on  the 
waves,  but  also  the  hard  finish  of  the  men.  The 
Englishman  is  finished  like  a  cowry  or  a  murex. 
After  the  spire  and  the  spines  are  formed,  or,  with 
the  formation,  a  juice  exudes,  and  a  hard  enamel 
varnishes  every  part.  The  keeping  of  the  proprieties 

83 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

is  as  indispensable  as  clean  linen.  No  merit  quite 
countervails  the  want  of  this,  whilst  this  some 
times  stands  in  lieu  of  all.  "'Tis  in  bad  taste"  is 
the  most  formidable  word  an  Englishman  can  pro 
nounce.  But  this  japan  costs  them  dear.  There  is 
a  prose  in  certain  Englishmen,  which  exceeds  in 
wooden  deadness  all  rivalry  with  other  country 
men.  There  is  a  knell  in  the  conceit  and  exter 
nality  of  their  voice,  which  seems  to  say,  Leave  all 
hope  behind.  In  this  Gibraltar  of  propriety  medio 
crity  gets  intrenched,  and  consolidated,  and  founded 
in  adamant.  An  Englishman  of  fashion  is  like  one 
of  those  souvenirs,  bound  in  gold  vellum,  enriched 
with  delicate  engravings,  on  thick  hot -pressed 
paper,  fit  for  the  hands  of  ladies  and  princes,  but 
with  nothing  in  it  worth  reading  or  remembering. 

A  severe  decorum  rules  the  court  and  the  cottage. 
When  Thalberg,  the  pianist,  was  one  evening  per 
forming  before  the  Queen,  at  Windsor,  in  a  private 
party,  the  Queen  accompanied  him  with  her  voice. 
The  circumstance  took  air,  and  all  England  shud 
dered  from  sea  to  sea.  The  indecorum  was  never 
repeated.  Gold,  repressive  manners  prevail.  No 
enthusiasm  is  permitted,  except  at  the  opera.  They 
avoid  everything  marked.  They  require  a  tone  of 
voice  that  excites  no  attention  in  the  room.  Sir 
Philip  Sidney  is  one  of  the  patron  saints  of  England, 
of  whom  Wotton  said,  "  His  wit  was  the  measure 
of  congruity." 

Pretension  and  vaporing  are  once  for  all  dis 
tasteful.  They  keep  to  the  other  extreme  of  low 
tone  in  dress  and  manners.  They  avoid  pretension, 
and  go  right  to  the  heart  of  the  thing.  They  hate 
nonsense,  sentimentalism,  and  highflown  expres 
sion  ;  they  use  a  studied  plainness.  Even  Brummel, 
84 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

their  fop,  was  marked  by  the  severest  simplicity  m 
dress.  They  value  themselves  on  the  absence  of 
everything  theatrical  in  the  public  business,  and 
on  conciseness  and  going  to  the  point,  in  private 
affairs. 

In  an  aristocratical  country  like  England,  not 
the  Trial  by  Jury,  but  the  dinner,  is  the  capital 
institution.  It  is  the  mode  of  doing  honor  to  a 
stranger,  to  invite  him  to  eat, — and  has  been  for 
many  hundred  years.  "  And  they  think,"  says  the 
Venetian  traveller  of  1500,  "  no  greater  honor  can 
be  conferred  or  received  than  to  invite  others  to 
eat  with  them,  or  to  be  invited  themselves,  and 
they  would  sooner  give  five  or  six  ducats  to  provide 
an  entertainment  for  a  person,  than  a  groat  to 
assist  him  in  any  distress."  x  It  is  reserved  to  the 
end  of  the  day,  the  family-hour  being  generally 
six,  in  London,  and,  if  any  company  is  expected, 
one  or  two  hours  later.  Every  one  dresses  for 
dinner,  in  his  own  house,  or  in  another  man's. 
The  guests  are  expected  to  arrive  within  half  an 
hour  of  the  time  fixed  by  card  of  invitation,  and 
nothing  but  death  or  mutilation  is  permitted  to 
detain  them.  The  English  dinner  is  precisely  the 
model  on  which  our  own  are  constructed  in  the 
Atlantic  cities.  The  company  sit  one  or  two  hours 
before  the  ladies  leave  the  table.  The  gentlemen 
remain  over  their  wine  an  hour  longer,  and  rejoin 
the  ladies  in  the  drawing-room,  and  take  coffee. 
The  dress-dinner  generates  a  talent  of  table-talk 
-which  reaches  great  perfection :  the  stories  are  so 
good,  that  one  is  sure  they  must  have  been  often 
told  before,  to  have  got  such  happy  turns.  Hither 
come  all  manner  of  clever  projects,  bits  of  popular 
science,  of  practical  invention,  of  miscellaneous 

85 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

humor  ;  political,  literary,  and  personal  news  ;  rail 
roads,  horses,  diamonds,  agriculture,  horticulture, 
pisciculture,  and  wine. 

English  stories,  bon-mots,  and  the  recorded 
table-talk  of  their  wits,  are  as  good  as  the  best  of 
the  French.  In  America  we  are  apt  scholars,  but 
have  not  yet  attained  the  same  perfection  :  for  the 
range  of  nations  from  which  London  draws,  and  the 
steep  contrasts  of  condition,  create  the  picturesque 
in  society,  as  broken  country  makes  picturesque 
landscape,  whilst  our  prevailing  equality  makes  a 
prairie  lameness  :  and  secondly,  because  the  usage 
of  a  dress-dinner  every  day  at  dark  has  a  tendency 
to  hive  and  produce  to  advantage  everything  good. 
Much  attrition  has  worn  every  sentence  into  a 
bullet.  Also  one  meets  now  and  then  with  polished 
men  who  know  everything,  have  tried  everything, 
can  do  everything,  and  are  quite  superior  to  letters 
and  science.  What  could  they  not,  if  only  they 
would  ? 


NOTE 

"Relation    of  England"     Printed  by   the  Camden 
Society. 


86 


CHAPTER  VII.  TRUTH 

9*  H  ^HE  Teutonic  tribes  have  a  national 
singleness  of  heart,  which  contrasts 
with  the  Latin  races.  The  German 
R  name  has  a  proverbial  significance  of 
sincerity  and  honest  meaning.  The  arts  bear  testi 
mony  to  it.  The  faces  of  clergy  and  laity  in  old 
sculptures  and  illuminated  missals  are  charged  with 
earnest  belief.  Add  to  this  hereditary  rectitude, 
the  punctuality  and  precise  dealing  which  com 
merce  creates,  and  you  have  the  English  truth 
and  credit.  The  government  strictly  performs  its 
engagements.  The  subjects  do  not  understand 
trilling  on  its  part.  When  any  breach  of  promise 
occurred,  in  the  old  days  of  prerogative,  it  was 
resented  by  the  people  as  an  intolerable  grievance. 
And,  in  modern  times,  any  slipperiness  in  the 
government  in  political  faith,  or  any  repudiation  or 
crookedness  in  matters  of  finance,  would  bring  the 
whole  nation  to  a  committee  of  inquiry  and  reform. 
Private  men  keep  their  promises,  never  so  trivial. 
Down  goes  the  flying  word  on  the  tablets,  and  is 
indelible  as  Domesday  Book. 

Their  practical  power  rests  on  their  national  sin 
cerity.  Veracity  derives  from  instinct,  and  marks 
superiority  in  organization.  Nature  has  endowed 
some  animals  with  cunning,  as  a  compensation  for 
strength  withheld  ;  but  it  has  provoked  the  malice 
of  all  others,  as  if  avengers  of  public  wrong.  In 
the  nobler  kinds,  where  strength  could  be  afforded, 
her  races  are  loyal  to  truth,  as  truth  is  the  founda 
tion  of  the  social  state.  Beasts  that  make  no  truce 
with  man,  do  not  break  faith  with  each  other.  'Tis 
said  that  the  wolf,  who  makes  a  cache  of  his  prey, 
and  brings  his  fellows  with  him  to  the  spot,  if,  on 

87 


digging,  it  is  not  found,  is  instantly  and  unresist 
ingly  torn  in  pieces.  English  veracity  seems  to  re 
sult  on  a  sounder  animal  structure,  as  if  they  could 
afford  it.  They  are  blunt  in  saying  what  they  think, 
sparing  of  promises,  and  they  require  plain-dealing 
of  others.  We  will  not  have  to  do  with  a  man  in  a 
mask.  Let  us  know  the  truth.  Draw  a  straight 
line,  hit  whom  and  where  it  will.  Alfred,  whom 
the  affection  of  the  nation  makes  the  type  of  their 
race,  is  called  by  his  friend  Asser,  the  truth-speaker; 
Alueredus  veridicus.  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  says  of 
King  Aurelius,  uncle  of  Arthur,  that  "  above  all 
things  he  hated  a  lie."  The  Northman  Guttorm 
said  to  King  Olaf,  "  It  is  royal  work  to  fulfil  royal 
words."  The  mottoes  of  their  families  are  monitory 
proverbs,  as,  Fare  fac, — Say,  do, — of  the  Fairfaxes; 
Say  and  seal,  of  the  house  of  Fiennes;  Vero  nil 
verius,  of  the  De- Veres.  To  be  king  of  their  word, 
is  their  pride.  When  they  unmask  cant,  they  say, 
"The  English  of  this  is,"  &c. ;  and  to  give  the  lie 
is  the  extreme  insult.  The  phrase  of  the  lowest 
of  the  people  is  "  honor-bright,"  and  their  vulgar 
praise,  "  His  word  is  as  good  as  his  bond."  They 
hate  shuffling  and  equivocation,  and  the  cause  is 
damaged  in  the  public  opinion,  on  which  any  palter 
ing  can  be  fixed.  Even  Lord  Chesterfield,  with 
his  French  breeding,  when  he  came  to  define  a 
gentleman,  declared  that  truth  made  his  distinc 
tion  :  and  nothing  ever  spoken  by  him  would  find 
so  hearty  a  suffrage  from  his  nation.  The  Duke 
of  Wellington,  who  had  the  best  right  to  say  so, 
advises  the  French  General  Kellermann,  that  he 
may  rely  on  the  parole  of  an  English  officer.  The 
English,  of  all  classes,  value  themselves  on  this 
trait,  as  distinguishing  them  from  the  French,  who, 
88 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

in  the  popular  belief,  are  more  polite  than  true. 
An  Englishman  understates,  avoids  the  superla 
tive,  checks  himself  in  compliments,  alleging  that 
in  the  French  language  one  cannot  speak  without 
lying. 

They  love  reality  in  wealth,  power,  hospitality, 
and  do  not  easily  learn  to  make  a  show,  and  take 
the  world  as  it  goes.  They  are  not  fond  of  orna 
ments,  and  if  they  wear  them,  they  must  be  gems. 
They  read  gladly  in  old  Fuller,  that  a  lady,  in 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  "would  have  as  patiently 
digested  a  lie,  as  the  wearing  of  false  stones  or 
pendants  of  counterfeit  pearl."  They  have  the 
earth-hunger,  or  preference  for  property  in  land, 
which  is  said  to  mark  the  Teutonic  nations.  They 
build  of  stone :  public  and  private  buildings  are 
massive  and  durable.  In  comparing  their  ships' 
houses  and  public  offices  with  the  American,  it  is 
commonly  said  that  they  spend  a  pound  where 
we  spend  a  dollar.  Plain  rich  clothes,  plain  rich 
equipage,  plain  rich  finish  throughout  their  house 
and  belongings,  mark  the  English  truth. 

They  confide  in  each  other, — English  believes 
in  English.  The  French  feel  the  superiority  of  this 
probity.  The  Englishman  is  not  springing  a  trap 
for  his  admiration,  but  is  honestly  minding  his  busi 
ness.  The  Frenchman  is  vain.  Madame  de  Stael 
says  that  the  English  irritated  Napoleon,  mainly, 
because  they  have  found  out  how  to  unite  success 
with  honesty.  She  was  not  aware  how  wide  an 
application  her  foreign  readers  would  give  to  the 
remark.  Wellington  discovered  the  ruin  of  Bona 
parte's  affairs,  by  his  own  probity.  He  augured  ill 
of  the  empire,  as  soon  as  he  saw  that  it  was  men 
dacious,  and  lived  by  war.  If  war  do  not  bring 

89 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

in  its  sequel  new  trade,  better  agriculture  and 
manufactures,  but  only  games,  fireworks,  and  spec 
tacles, — no  prosperity  could  support  it ;  much  less, 
a  nation  decimated  for  conscripts,  and  out  of  pocket, 
like  France.  So  he  drudged  for  years  on  his  mili 
tary  works  at  Lisbon,  and  from  this  base  at  last 
extended  his  gigantic  lines  to  Waterloo,  believing 
in  his  countrymen  and  their  syllogisms  above  all 
the  rhodomontade  of  Europe. 

At  a  St.  George's  festival,  in  Montreal,  where  I 
happened  to  be  a  guest,  since  my  return  home,  I 
observed  that  the  chairman  complimented  his  com 
patriots,  by  saying,  "they  confided  that  wherever 
they  met  an  Englishman,  they  found  a  man  who 
would  speak  the  truth."  And  one  cannot  think  this 
festival  fruitless,  if,  all  over  the  world,  on  the 
23rd  of  April,  wherever  two  or  three  English  are 
found,  they  meet  to  encourage  each  other  in  the 
nationality  of  veracity. 

In  the  power  of  saying  rude  truth,  sometimes  in 
the  lion's  mouth,  no  men  surpass  them.  On  the 
king's  birthday,  when  each  bishop  was  expected  to 
offer  the  king  a  purse  of  gold,  Latimcr  gave  Henry 
VIII.  a  copy  of  the  Vulgate,  with  a  mark  at  the 
passage,  "  Whoremongers  and  adulterers  God  will 
judge  ;  "  and  they  so  honor  stoutness  in  each  other, 
that  the  king  passed  it  over.  They  are  tenacious 
of  their  belief,  and  cannot  easily  change  their 
opinions  to  suit  the  hour.  They  are  like  ships  with 
too  much  head  on  to  come  quickly  about,  nor  will 
prosperity  or  even  adversity  be  allowed  to  shake 
their  habitual  view  of  conduct.  Whilst  I  was  in 
London,  M.  Guizot  arrived  there  on  his  escape 
from  Paris,  in  February  1S48.  Many  private  friends 
called  on  him.  His  name  was  immediately  pro- 
90 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

posed  as  an  honorary  member  of  the  Athenaeum. 
M.  Guizot  was  blackballed.  Certainly,  they  knew 
the  distinction  of  his  name.  But  the  Englishman  is 
not  fickle.  He  had  really  made  up  his  mind,  now  for 
years  as  he  read  his  newspaper,  to  hate  and  despise 
M.  Guizot ;  and  the  altered  position  of  the  man  as 
an  illustrious  exile,  and  a  guest  in  the  country; 
makes  no  difference  to  him,  as  it  would  instantly* 
to  an  American. 

They  require  the  same  adherence,  thorough  con 
viction  and  reality  in  public  men.  It  is  the  want 
of  character  which  makes  the  low  reputation  of 
the  Irish  members.  "See  them,"  they  said,  "one 
hundred  and  twenty-seven  all  voting  like  sheep, 
never  proposing  anything,  and  all  but  four  voting 
the  income  tax," — which  was  an  ill-judged  conces 
sion  of  the  Government,  relieving  Irish  property 
from  the  burdens  charged  on  English. 

They  have  a  horror  of  adventurers  in  or  out  of 
Parliament.  The  ruling  passion  of  Englishmen,  in 
these  days,  is  a  terror  of  humbug.  In  the  same 
proportion,  they  value  honesty,  stoutness,  and 
adherence  to  your  own.  They  like  a  man  com 
mitted  to  his  objects.  They  hate  the  French,  as 
frivolous  ;  they  hate  the  Irish,  as  aimless  ;  they  hate 
the  Germans,  as  professors.  In  February,  1848, 
they  said,  "Look,  the  French  king  and  his  party 
fell  for  want  of  a  shot ;  they  had  not  conscience 
to  shoot,  so  entirely  was  the  pith  and  heart  of 
monarchy  eaten  out." 

They  attack  their  own  politicians  every  day,  on 
the  same  grounds,  as  adventurers.  They  love  stout 
ness  in  standing  for  your  right,  in  declining  money 
or  promotion  that  costs  any  concession.  The  bar 
rister  refuses  the  silk  gown  of  Queen's  Counsel,  if 

91 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

his  junior  have  it  one  day  earlier.  Lord  Colllng- 
wood  would  not  accept  his  medal  for  victory  on 
14th  February,  1797,  if  he  did  not  receive  one  for 
victory  on  1st  June,  1794  ;  and  the  long  withholden 
medal  was  accorded.  When  Gastlereagh  dissuaded 
Lord  Wellington  from  going  to  the  king's  levee, 
until  the  unpopular  Cintra  business  had  been  ex 
plained,  he  replied,  "  You  furnish  me  a  reason  for 
going.  I  will  go  to  this,  or  I  will  never  go  to  a 
king's  levee."  The  radical  mob  at  Oxford  cried 
after  the  tory  Lord  Eldon,  "There's  old  Eldon; 
cheer  him  ;  he  never  ratted."  They  have  given  the 
parliamentary  nickname  of  Trimmers  to  the  time- 
servers,  whom  English  character  does  not  love.1 

They  are  very  liable  in  their  politics  to  extra 
ordinary  delusions,  thus,  to  believe  what  stands 
recorded  in  the  gravest  books,  that  the  move 
ment  of  10th  April,  1848,  was  urged  or  assisted  by 
foreigners :  which,  to  be  sure,  is  paralleled  by  the 
democratic  whimsy  in  this  country,  which  I  have 
noticed  to  be  shared  by  men  sane  on  other  points, 
that  the  English  are  at  the  bottom  of  the  agitation 
of  slavery,  in  American  politics :  and  then  again 
to  the  French  popular  legends  on  the  subject  of 
perfidious  Albion.  But  suspicion  will  make  fools  of 
nations  as  of  citizens. 

A  slow  temperament  makes  them  less  rapid  and 
ready  than  other  countrymen,  and  has  given  occa 
sion  to  the  observation,  that  English  wit  comes 
afterwards, — which  the  French  denote  as  esprit 
d'escalier.  This  dulness  makes  their  attachment  to 
home,  and  their  adherence  in  all  foreign  countries 
to  home  habits.  The  Englishman  who  visits  Mount 
Etna,  will  carry  his  tea-kettle  to  the  top.  The 
old  Italian  author  of  the  "Relation  of  England" 
92 


(in  1500)  says,  "I  have  it  on  the  best  information, 
that,  when  the  war  is  actually  raging  most  furiously, 
they  will  seek  for  good  eating,  and  all  their  other 
comforts,  without  thinking  what  harm  might  befall 
them."  Then  their  eyes  seem  to  be  set  at  the  bot 
tom  of  a  tunnel,  and  they  affirm  the  one  small  fact 
they  know,  with  the  best  faith  in  the  world  that 
nothing  else  exists.  And,  as  their  own  belief  in 
guineas  is  perfect,  they  readily,  on  all  occasions, 
apply  the  pecuniary  argument  as  final.  Thus  when 
the  Rochester  rappings  began  to  be  heard  of  in 
England,  a  man  deposited  £100  in  a  sealed  box  in 
the  Dublin  Bank,  and  then  advertised  in  the  news 
papers  to  all  somnambulists,  mesmerizers,  and 
others,  that  whoever  could  tell  him  the  number  of 
his  note,  should  have  the  money.  He  let  it  lie  there 
six  months,  the  newspapers  now  and  then,  at  his 
instance,  stimulating  the  attention  of  the  adepts ; 
but  none  could  ever  tell  him  ;  and  he  said,  "  Now 
let  me  never  be  bothered  more  with  this  proven 
lie."  It  is  told  of  a  good  Sir  John,  that  he  heard  a 
case  stated  by  counsel,  and  made  up  his  mind ; 
then  the  counsel  for  the  other  side  taking  their 
turn  to  speak,  he  found  himself  so  unsettled  and 
perplexed,  that  he  exclaimed,  '  So  help  me  God ! 
I  will  never  listen  to  evidence  again."  Any  number 
of  delightful  examples  of  this  English  stolidity  are 
the  anecdotes  of  Europe.  I  knew  a  very  worthy 
man, — a  magistrate,  I  believe  he  was,  in  the  town 
of  Derby, — who  went  to  the  opera,  to  see  Malibran. 
In  one  scene,  the  heroine  was  to  rush  across  a 
ruined  bridge.  Mr.  B.  arose,  and  mildly  yet  firmly 
called  the  attention  of  the  audience  and  the  per 
formers  to  the  fact  that,  in  his  judgment,  the  bridge 
was  unsafe  !  This  English  stolidity  contrasts  with 

93 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

French  \vit  and  tact.  The  French,  it  is  commonly 
said,  have  greatly  more  influence  in  Europe  than 
the  English.  What  influence  the  English  have  is 
by  brute  force  of  wealth  and  power  ;  that  of  the 
French  by  affinity  and  talent.  The  I  talian  is  subtle, 
the  Spaniard  treacherous  :  tortures,  it  was  said, 
could  never  wrest  from  an  Egyptian  the  confession 
of  a  secret.  None  of  these  traits  belong  to  the 
Englishman.  His  choler  and  conceit  force  every 
thing  out.  Defoe,  who  knew  his  countrymen  well, 
says  of  them  : 

In  close  intrigue,  their  faculty's  but  weak, 
For  generally  whatever  they  know,  they  speak, 
And  often  their  own  counsels  undermine 
By  mere  infirmity  without  design  ; 
From  whence,  the  learned  say,  it  doth  proceed, 
That  English  treasons  never  can  succeed  ; 
For  they're  so  open-hearted,  you  may  know 
Their  own  most  secret  thoughts,  and  others'  too. 


NOTE 

1  It  is  an  unlucky  moment  to  remember  these  sparkles 
of  solitary  virtue  in  the  face  of  the  honors  lately  paid  in 
England  to  the  Emperor  Louis  Napoleon.  I  am  sure  that 
no  Englishman  whom  I  had  the  happiness  to  know,  con 
sented,  when  the  aristocracy  and  the  commons  of  London 
cringed  like  a  Neapolitan  rabble,  before  a  successful 
thief.  But — how  to  resist  one  step,  though  odious,  in  a 
linked  series  of  state  necessities  ? — Governments  must 
always  learn  too  late,  that  the  use  of  dishonest  agents  is 
as  ruinous  for  nations  as  for  single  men. 

94 


CHAPTER  VIII.  CHARACTER 

p  •  ^HE  English  race  are  reputed  morose. 
I  do  not  know  that  they  have  sadder 
brows  than  their  neighbors  of  northern 
JL  climates.  They  are  sad  by  comparison 
with  the  singing  and  dancing  nations  :  not  sadder, 
but  slow  and  staid,  as  finding  their  joys  at  home. 
They,  too,  believe  that  where  there  is  no  enjoyment 
of  life,  there  can  be  no  vigor  and  art  in  speech  or 
thought :  that  your  merry  heart  goes  all  the  way, 
your  sad  one  tires  in  a  mile.  This  trait  of  gloom  has 
been  fixed  on  them  by  French  travellers,  who  from 
Froissart,  Voltaire,  Le  Sage,  Mirabeau,  down  to 
the  lively  journalists  of  the  feuilletons,  have  spent 
their  wit  on  the  solemnity  of  their  neighbors.  The 
French  say,  gay  conversation  is  unknown  in  their 
island.  The  Englishman  finds  no  relief  from  reflec 
tion,  except  in  reflection.  When  he  wishes  for 
amusement,  he  goes  to  work.  His  hilarity  is  like 
an  attack  of  fever.  Religion,  the  theatre,  and  the 
reading  the  books  of  his  country,  all  feed  and  in 
crease  his  natural  melancholy.  The  police  does  not 
interfere  with  public  diversions.  It  thinks  itself 
bound  in  duty  to  respect  the  pleasures  and  rare 
gayety  of  this  inconsolable  nation  ;  and  their  well- 
known  courage  is  entirely  attributable  to  their 
disgust  of  life. 

I  suppose  their  gravity  of  demeanor  and  their 
few  words  have  obtained  this  reputation.  As  com 
pared  with  the  Americans,  I  think  them  cheerful 
and  contented.  Young  people  in  this  country  are 
much  more  prone  to  melancholy.  The  English 
have  a  mild  aspect,  and  a  ringing,  cheerful  voice. 
They  are  large-natured,  and  not  so  easily  amused 
as  the  southerners,  and  are  among  them  as  grown 

95 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

people  among  children,  requiring  war,  or  trade,  or 
engineering,  or  science,  instead  of  frivolous  games. 
They  are  proud  and  private,  and,  even  if  disposed 
to  recreation,  will  avoid  an  open  garden.  They 
sported  sadly  ;  Us  samusaient  trisiement,  selon  la  cou- 
tume  de  leur  pays,  said  Froissart ;  and  I  suppose 
never  nation  built  their  party-walls  so  thick,  or 
their  garden-fences  so  high.  Meat  and  wine  produce 
no  effect  on  them  :  they  are  just  as  cold,  quiet,  and 
composed  at  the  end,  as  at  the  beginning  of  dinner. 

The  reputation  of  taciturnity  they  have  enjoyed 
for  six  or  seven  hundred  years  ;  and  a  kind  of 
pride  in  bad  public  speaking  is  noted  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  as  if  they  were  willing  to  show  that 
they  did  not  live  by  their  tongues,  or  thought  they 
spoke  well  enough  if  they  had  the  tone  of  gentle 
men.  In  mixed  company  they  shut  their  mouths. 
A  Yorkshire  mill-owner  told  me  he  had  ridden 
more  than  once  all  the  way  from  London  to  Leeds, 
in  the  first-class  carriage,  with  the  same  persons, 
and  no  word  exchanged.  The  club-houses  were 
established  to  cultivate  social  habits,  and  it  is  rare 
that  more  than  two  eat  together,  and  oftenest  one 
eats  alone.  Was  it,  then,  a  stroke  of  humor  in  the 
serious  Swedenborg,  or  was  it  only  his  pitiless  logic, 
that  made  him  shut  up  the  English  souls  in  a  heaven 
by  themselves  ? 

They  are  contradictorily  described  as  sour, 
splenetic,  and  stubborn, — and  as  mild,  sweet,  and 
sensible.  The  truth  is,  they  have  great  range  and 
variety  of  character.  Commerce  sends  abroad 
multitudes  of  different  classes.  The  choleric  Welsh 
man,  the  fervid  Scot,  the  bilious  resident  in  the 
East  or  West  Indies,  are  wide  of  the  perfect  beha 
vior  of  the  educated  and  dignified  man  of  family. 
96 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

So  is  the  burly  farmer ;  so  is  the  country  'squire, 
with  his  narrow  and  violent  life.  In  every  inn  is 
the  Commercial-Room,  in  which  'travellers/  or 
bagmen  who  carry  patterns,  and  solicit  orders  for 
the  manufacturers,  are  wont  to  be  entertained.  It 
easily  happens  that  this  class  should  characterize 
England  to  the  foreigner,  who  meets  them  on  the 
road  and  at  every  public  house,  whilst  the  gentry 
avoid  the  taverns,  or  seclude  themselves  whilst  in 
them. 

But  these  classes  are  the  right  English  stock,  and 
may  fairly  show  the  national  qualities  before  yet 
art  and  education  have  dealt  with  them.  They  are 
good  lovers,  good  haters,  slow  but  obstinate  ad 
mirers,  and  in  all  things  very  much  steeped  in  their 
temperament,  like  men  hardly  awaked  from  deep 
sleep  which  they  enjoy.  Their  habits  and  instincts 
cleave  to  nature.  They  are  of  the  earth,  earthy ; 
and  of  the  sea,  as  the  sea-kinds,  attached  to  it  for 
what  it  yields  them,  and  not  from  any  sentiment. 
They  are  full  of  coarse  strength,  rude  exercise, 
butcher's  meat,  and  sound  sleep ;  and  suspect  any 
poetic  insinuation,  or  any  hint  for  the  conduct  of 
life  which  reflects  on  this  animal  existence,  as  if 
somebody  were  fumbling  at  the  umbilical  cord, 
and  might  stop  their  supplies.  They  doubt  a  man's 
sound  judgment  if  he  does  not  eat  with  appetite, 
and  shake  their  heads  if  he  is  particularly  chaste. 
Take  them  as  they  come,  you  shall  find  in  the 
common  people  a  surly  indifference,  sometimes 
gruffhess  and  ill  temper ;  and,  in  minds  of  more 
power,  magazines  of  inexhaustible  war,  challenging 

The  ruggedest  hour  that  time  and  spite  dare  bring 
To  frown  upon  the  enraged  Northumberland. 

g  97 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

They  are  headstrong  believers  and  defenders  of 
their  opinion,  and  not  less  resolute  in  maintaining 
their  whim  and  perversity.  Hezekiah  Woodward 
wrote  a  book  against  the  Lord's  Prayer.  And  one 
can  believe  that  Burton,  the  Anatomist  of  Melan 
choly,  having  predicted  from  the  stars  the  hour  of 
his  death,  slipped  the  knot  himself  round  his  own 
neck,  not  to  falsify  his  horoscope. 

Their  looks  bespeak  an  invincible  stoutness : 
they  have  extreme  difficulty  to  run  away,  and  will 
die  game.  Wellington  said  of  the  young  coxcombs 
of  the  Life-Guards,  delicately  brought  up,  "  But 
the  puppies  fight  well ; "  and  Nelson  said  of  his 
sailors,  "  They  really  mind  shot  no  more  than 
peas."  Of  absolute  stoutness  no  nation  has  more 
or  better  examples.  They  are  good  at  storming 
redoubts,  at  boarding  frigates,  at  dying  in  the  last 
ditch,  or  any  desperate  service  which  has  daylight 
and  honor  in  it ;  but  not,  I  think,  at  enduring  the 
rack,  or  any  passive  obedience,  like  jumping  off  a 
castle-roof  at  the  word  of  a  czar.  Being  both  vas 
cular  and  highly  organized,  so  as  to  be  very  sensible 
of  pain;  and  intellectual,  so  as  to  see  reason  and 
glory  in  a  matter. 

Of  that  constitutional  force,  which  yields  the  sup 
plies  of  the  day,  they  have  the  more  than  enough, 
the  excess  which  creates  courage  on  fortitude, 
genius  in  poetry,  invention  in  mechanics,  enterprise 
in  trade,  magnificence  in  wealth,  splendor  in  cere 
monies,  petulance  and  projects  in  youth.  The  young 
men  have  a  rude  health  which  runs  into  peccant 
humors.  They  drink  brandy  like  water,  cannot 
expend  their  quantities  of  waste  strength  on  riding, 
hunting,  swimming,  and  fencing,  and  run  into  ab 
surd  frolics  with  the  gravity  of  the  Eumenides. 
98 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

They  stoutly  carry  into  every  nook  and  corner  of 
the  earth  their  turbulent  sense ;  leaving  no  lie  un- 
contradicted ;  no  pretension  unexamined.  They 
chew  hasheesh ;  cut  themselves  with  poisoned 
creases;  swing  their  hammock  in  the  boughs  of 
the  Bohon  Upas ;  taste  every  poison ;  buy  every 
secret ;  at  Naples,  they  put  St.  Januarius's  blood 
in  an  alembic ;  they  saw  a  hole  into  the  head  of 
the  winking  Virgin,"  to  know  why  she  winks ; 
measure  with  an  English  footrule  every  cell  of  the 
Inquisition,  every  Turkish  caaba,  every  Holy  of 
holies ;  translate  and  send  to  Bentley  the  arcanum 
bribed  and  bullied  away  from  shuddering  Bramins ; 
and  measure  their  own  strength  by  the  terror  they 
cause.  These  travellers  are  of  every  class,  the  best 
and  the  worst ;  and  it  may  easily  happen  that  those 
of  rudest  behavior  are  taken  notice  of  and  remem 
bered.  The  Saxon  melancholy  in  the  vulgar  rich 
and  poor  appears  as  gushes  of  ill-humor,  which 
every  check  exasperates  into  sarcasm  and  vitupera 
tion.  There  are  multitudes  of  rude  young  English 
who  have  the  self-sufficiency  and  bluntness  of  their 
nation,  and  who,  with  their  disdain  of  the  rest  of 
mankind,  and  with  this  indigestion  and  choler,  have 
made  the  English  traveller  a  proverb  for  uncom 
fortable  and  offensive  manners.  It  was  no  bad 
description  of  the  Briton  generically,  what  was  said 
two  hundred  years  ago,  of  one  particular  Oxford 
scholar :  "He  was  a  very  bold  man, uttered  anything 
that  came  into  his  mind,  not  only  among  his  com 
panions,  but  in  public  coffee-houses,  and  would  often 
speak  his  mind  of  particular  persons  then  accident 
ally  present,  without  examining  the  company  he  was 
in  ;  for  which  he  was  often  reprimanded,  and  several 
times  threatened  to  be  kicked  and  beaten." 

99 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

The  common  Englishman  is  prone  to  forget  a  car 
dinal  article  in  the  bill  of  social  rights,  that  every 
man  has  a  right  to  his  own  ears.  No  man  can 
claim  to  usurp  more  than  a  few  cubic  feet  of  the 
audibilities  of  a  public  room,  or  to  put  upon  the 
company  with  the  loud  statement  of  his  crotchets 
or  personalities. 

But  it  is  in  the  deep  traits  of  race  that  the  for 
tunes  of  nations  are  written,  and  however  derived, 
whether  a  happier  tribe  or  mixture  of  tribes,  the 
air,  or  what  circumstance,  that  mixed  for  them  the 
golden  mean  of  temperament, — here  exists  the  best 
stock  in  the  world,  broad-fronted,  broad-bottomed, 
best  for  depth,  range,  and  equability,  men  of  aplomb 
and  reserves,  great  range  and  many  moods,  strong 
instincts,  yet  apt  for  culture  ;  war-class  as  well  as 
clerks;  earls  and  tradesmen;  wise  minority,  as  well 
as  foolish  majority ;  abysmal  temperament,  hiding 
wells  of  wrath,  and  glooms  on  which  no  sunshine 
settles ;  alternated  with  a  common  sense  and 
humanity  which  hold  them  fast  to  every  piece  of 
cheerful  duty ;  making  this  temperament  a  sea  to 
which  all  storms  are  superficial ;  a  race  to  which 
their  fortunes  flow,  as  if  they  alone  had  the  elastic 
organization  at  once  fine  and  robust  enough  for 
dominion  ;  as  if  the  burly,  inexpressive,  now  mute 
and  contumacious,  now  fierce  and  sharp-tongued 
dragon,  which  once  made  the  island  light  with  his 
fiery  breath,  had  bequeathed  his  ferocity  to  his 
conqueror.  They  hide  virtues  under  vices,  or  the 
semblance  of  them.  It  is  the  misshapen  hairy 
Scandinavian  troll  again,  who  lifts  the  cart  out  of 
the  mire,  or  "threshes  the  corn  that  ten  day- 
laborers  could  not  end,"  but  it  is  done  in  the  dark, 
and  with  muttered  maledictions.  He  is  a  churl 
100 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

with  a  soft  place  in  his  heart,  whose  speech  is  a 
brash  of  bitter  waters,  but  who  loves  to  help  you 
at  a  pinch.  He  says  no,  and  serves  you,  and  your 
thanks  disgust  him.  Here  was  lately  a  cross-grained 
miser,  odd  and  ugly,  resembling  in  countenance  the 
portrait  of  Punch,  with  the  laugh  left  out ;  rich  by 
his  own  industry  ;  sulking  in  a  lonely  house  ;  who 
never  gave  a  dinner  to  any  man,  and  disdained  all 
courtesies ;  yet  as  true  a  worshipper  of  beauty 
in  form  and  color  as  ever  existed,  and  profusely 
pouring  over  the  cold  mind  of  his  countrymen 
creations  of  grace  and  truth,  removing  the  reproach 
of  sterility  from  English  art,  catching  from  their 
savage  climate  every  fine  hint,  and  importing  into 
their  galleries  every  tint  and  trait  of  sunnier  cities 
and  skies ;  making  an  era  in  painting ;  and,  when 
he  saw  that  the  splendor  of  one  of  his  pictures  in 
the  Exhibition  dimmed  his  rival's  that  hung  next 
it,  secretly  took  a  brush  and  blackened  his  own. 

They  do  not  wear  their  heart  in  their  sleeve  for 
daws  to  peck  at.  They  have  that  phlegm  or  staid- 
ness,  which  it  is  a  compliment  to  disturb.  "  Great 
men,"  said  Aristotle,  "are  always  of  a  nature  origi 
nally  melancholy."  'Tis  the  habit  of  a  mind  which 
attaches  to  abstractions  with  a  passion  which  gives 
vast  results.  They  dare  to  displease,  they  do  not 
speak  to  expectation.  They  like  the  sayers  of  No, 
better  than  the  sayers  of  Yes.  Each  of  them  has 
an  opinion  which  he  feels  it  becomes  him  to  express 
all  the  more  that  it  differs  from  yours.  They  are 
meditating  opposition.  This  gravity  is  inseparable 
from  minds  of  great  resources. 

There  is  an  English  hero  superior  to  the  French, 
the  German,  the  Italian,  or  the  Greek.  When  he 
is  brought  to  the  strife  with  fate,  he  sacrifices  a 

101 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

richer  material  possession,  and  on  more  purely 
metaphysical  grounds.  Me  is  there  with  his  own 
consent,  face  to  face  with  fortune,  which  he  defies. 
On  deliberate  choice,  and  from  grounds  of  character, 
he  has  elected  his  part  to  live  and  die  for,  and  dies 
with  grandeur.  This  race  has  added  new  elements 
to  humanity,  and  has  a  deeper  root  in  the  world. 

They  have  great  range  of  scale,  from  ferocity  to 
exquisite  refinement.  With  larger  scale,  they  have 
great  retrieving  power.  After  running  each  ten 
dency  to  an  extreme,  they  try  another  tack  with 
equal  heat.  More  intellectual  than  other  races, 
when  they  live  with  other  races,  they  do  not  take 
their  language,  but  bestow  their  own.  They  subsi 
dize  other  nations,  and  are  not  subsidized.  They 
proselyte,  and  are  not  proselyted.  They  assimilate 
other  races  to  themselves,  and  are  not  assimilated. 
The  English  did  not  calculate  the  conquest  of  the 
Indies.  It  fell  to  their  character.  So  they  admi 
nister  in  different  parts  of  the  world,  the  codes  of 
every  empire  and  race ;  in  Canada,  old  French 
law  ;  in  the  Mauritius,  the  Code  Napoleon  ;  in  the 
West  Indies,  the  edicts  of  the  Spanish  Cortes ;  in 
the  East  Indies,  the  Laws  of  Menu ;  in  the  Isle  of 
Man,  of  the  Scandinavian  Thing ;  at  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  of  the  old  Netherlands ;  and  in  the 
Ionian  Islands,  the  Pandects  of  Justinian. 

They  are  very  conscious  of  their  advantageous 
position  in  history.  England  is  the  lawgiver,  the 
patron,  the  instructor,  the  ally.  Compare  the  tone 
of  the  French  and  of  the  English  press:  the  first 
querulous,  captious,  sensitive  about  English  opinion; 
the  English  press  is  never  timorous  about  French 
opinion,  but  arrogant  and  contemptuous. 

They  are  testy  and  headstrong  through  an  excess 
102 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

of  will  and  bias ;  churlish  as  men  sometimes  please 
to  be  who  do  not  forget  a  debt,  who  ask  no  favors, 
and  who  will  do  what  they  like  with  their  own. 
With  education  and  intercourse,  these  asperities 
wear  off,  and  leave  the  good  will  pure.  If  anatomy 
is  reformed  according  to  national  tendencies,  I  sup 
pose,  the  spleen  will  hereafter  be  found  in  the 
Englishman,  not  found  in  the  American,  and  diffe 
rencing  the  one  from  the  other.  I  anticipate  another 
anatomical  discovery,  that  this  organ  will  be  found 
to  be  cortical  and  caducous,  that  they  are  super 
ficially  morose,  but  at  last  tender-hearted,  herein 
differing  from  Rome  and  the  Latin  nations.  Nothing 
savage,  nothing  mean,  resides  in  the  English  heart. 
They  are  subject  to  panics  of  credulity  and  of  rage, 
but  the  temper  of  the  nation,  however  disturbed, 
settles  itself  soon  and  easily,  as,  in  this  temperate 
zone,  the  sky  after  whatever  storms  clears  again, 
and  serenity  is  its  normal  condition. 

A  saving  stupidity  masks  and  protects  their  per 
ception  as  the  curtain  of  the  eagle's  eye.  Our  swifter 
Americans,  when  they  first  deal  with  English,  pro 
nounce  them  stupid  ;  but,  later,  do  them  justice  as 
people  who  wear  well,  or  hide  their  strength.  To 
understand  the  power  of  performance  that  is  in  their 
finest  wits,  in  the  patient  Newton,  or  in  the  versatile 
transcendent  poets,  or  in  the  Dugdales,  Gibbons, 
Hallams,  Eldons,  and  Peels,  one  should  see  how 
English  day-laborers  hold  out.  High  and  low,  they 
are  of  an  unctuous  texture.  There  is  an  adipocere 
in  their  constitution,  as  if  they  had  oil  also  for  their 
mental  wheels,  and  could  perform  vast  amounts  of 
work  without  damaging  themselves. 

Even  the  scale  of  expense  on  which  people 
live,  and  to  which  scholars  and  professional  men 

103 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

conform,  proves  the  tension  of  their  muscle,  when 
vast  numbers  are  found  who  can  each  lift  this  enor 
mous  load.  I  might  even  add,  their  daily  feasts 
argue  a  savage  vigor  of  body. 

No  nation  was  ever  so  rich  in  able  men  ;  "gentle- 
men,"as  Charles  I.  said  of  Straffbrd, "  whose  abilities 
might  make  a  prince  rather  afraid  than  ashamed  in 
the  greatest  affairs  of  state  ; "  men  of  such  temper 
that,  like  Baron  Vere, '  had  one  seen  him  returning 
from  a  victory,  he  would  by  his  silence  have  sus 
pected  that  he  had  lost  the  day ;  and,  had  he  be 
held  him  in  a  retreat,  he  would  have  collected  him 
a  conqueror  by  the  cheerfulness  of  his  spirit." l 

The  following  passage  from  the  "  Heimskringla  " 
might  almost  stand  as  a  portrait  of  the  modern  Eng 
lishman: — "Haldorwas  very  stout  and  strong,  and 
remarkably  handsomein  appearances.  King  Harold 
gave  him  this  testimony,  that  he,  among  all  his  men, 
cared  least  about  doubtful  circumstances,  whether 
they  betokened  danger  or  pleasure  ;  for.,  whatever 
turned  up,  he  was  never  in  higher  nor  in  lower 
spirits,  never  slept  less  nor  more  on  account  of  them, 
nor  ate  nor  drank  but  according  to  his  custom. 
Haldor  was  not  a  man  of  many  words,  but  short 
in  conversation,  told  his  opinion  bluntly,  and  was 
obstinate  and  hard :  and  this  could  not  please  the 
king,  who  had  many  clever  people  about  him, 
zealous  in  his  service.  Haldor  remained  a  short 
time  with  the  king,  and  then  came  to  Iceland,  where 
he  took  up  his  abode  in  Hiardaholt,  and  dwelt  in 
that  farm  to  a  very  advanced  age."  a 

The  national  temper,  in  the  civil  history,  is  not 
flashy  or  whiffling.  The  slow,  deep  English  mass 
smoulders  with  fire,  which  at  last  sets  all  its  borders 
in  flame.  The  wrath  of  London  is  not  French  wrath, 
104 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

but  has  a  long  memory,  and,  in  its  hottest  heat,  a 
register  and  rule. 

Half  their  strength  they  put  not  forth.  They  are 
capable  of  a  sublime  resolution,  and  if  hereafter  the 
war  of  races,  often  predicted,  and  making  itself  a  war 
of  opinions  also  (a  question  of  despotism  and  liberty 
coming  from  Eastern  Europe),  should  menace  the 
English  civilisation,  these  sea-kings  may  take  once 
again  to  their  floating  castles,  and  find  a  new  home 
and  a  second  millennium  of  power  in  their  colonies. 

The  stability  of  England  is  the  security  of  the 
modern  world.  If  the  English  race  were  as  mutable 
as  the  French,  what  reliance  ?  But  the  English 
stand  for  liberty.  The  conservative,  money -loving, 
lord-loving  English  are  yet  liberty-loving;  and  so 
freedom  is  safe  :  for  they  have  more  personal  force 
than  any  other  people.  The  nation  always  resist  the 
immoral  action  of  their  government.  They  think 
humanely  on  the  affairs  of  France,  of  Turkey,  of 
Poland,  of  Hungary,  of  Schleswig-Holstein,  though 
overborne  by  the  statecraft  of  the  rulers  at  last. 

Does  the  early  history  of  each  tribe  show  the 
permanent  bias,  which,  though  not  less  potent,  is 
masked,  as  the  tribe  spreads  its  activity  into  colo 
nies,  commerce,  codes,  arts,  letters  ?  The  early 
history  shows  it,  as  the  musician  plays  the  air 
which  he  proceeds  to  conceal  in  a  tempest  of  varia 
tions.  In  Alfred,  in  the  Northmen,  one  may  read 
the  genius  of  the  English  society,  namely,  that 
private  life  is  the  place  of  honor.  Glory,  a  career, 
and  ambition,  words  familiar  to  the  longitude  of 
Paris,  are  seldom  heard  in  English  speech.  Nelson 
wrote  from  their  hearts  his  homely  telegraph, 

England  expects  every  man  to  do  his  duty." 

For  actual  service,  for  the  dignity  of  a  profession, 

105 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

or  to  appease  diseased  or  inflamed  talent,  the  army 
and  navy  may  be  entered  (the  worst  boys  doing 
well  in  the  navy) ;  and  the  civil  service,  in  depart 
ments  where  serious  official  work  is  done  ;  and  they 
hold  in  esteem  the  barrister  engaged  in  the  severer 
studies  of  the  law.  But  the  calm,  sound,  and  most 
British  Briton  shrinks  from  public  life,  as  charla 
tanism,  and  respects  an  economy  founded  on  agri 
culture,  coal-mines,  manufactures,  or  trade,  which 
secures  an  independence  through  the  creation  of 
real  values. 

They  wish  neither  to  command  nor  obey,  but  to 
be  kings  in  their  own  houses.  They  are  intellectual 
and  deeply  enjoy  literature  ;  they  like  well  to  have 
the  world  served  up  to  them  in  books,  maps,  models, 
and  every  mode  of  exact  information,  and,  though 
not  creators  in  art,  they  value  its  refinement.  They 
are  ready  for  leisure,  can  direct  and  fill  their  own 
day,  nor  need  so  much  as  others  the  constraint 
of  a  necessity.  But  the  history  of  the  nation  dis 
closes,  at  every  turn,  this  original  predilection  for 
private  independence,  and,  however  this  inclination 
may  have  been  disturbed  by  the  bribes  with  which 
their  vast  colonial  power  has  warped  men  out  of 
orbit,  the  inclination  endures,  and  forms  and  re 
forms  the  laws,  letters,  manners,  and  occupations. 
They  choose  that  welfare  which  is  compatible  with 
the  commonwealth,  knowing  that  such  alone  is 
stable  ;  as  wise  merchants  prefer  investments  in 
the  three  per  cents. 


NOTES 

1  Fuller,  "  Worthies  of  England." 

"  Heimskringla"  Laing's  translation,  vol.  Hi.  p.  37. 
106 


CHAPTER  IX.  COCKAYNE 

P  H  HHE  English  are  a  nation  of  humorists. 
Individual  right  is  pushed  to  the  utter 
most  bound  compatible  with  public 
-JEL  order.  Property  is  so  perfect,  that  it 
seems  the  craft  of  that  race,  and  not  to  exist  else 
where.  The  king  cannot  step  on  an  acre  which  the 
peasant  refuses  to  sell.  A  testator  endows  a  dog  or 
a  rookery,  and  Europe  cannot  interfere  with  his 
absurdity.  Every  individual  has  his  particular  way 
of  living,  which  he  pushes  to  folly,  and  the  decided 
sympathy  of  his  compatriots  is  engaged  to  backup 
Mr.  Crump's  whim  by  statutes,  and  chancellors,  and 
horse-guards.  There  is  no  freak  so  ridiculous  but 
some  Englishman  has  attempted  to  immortalize  by 
money  and  law.  British  citizenship  is  as  omnipo 
tent  as  Roman  was.  Mr.  Cockayne  is  very  sensible 
of  this.  The  pursy  man  means  by  freedom  the  right 
to  do  as  he  pleases,  and  does  wrong  in  order  to  feel 
his  freedom,  and  makes  a  conscience  of  persisting 
in  it. 

He  is  intensely  patriotic,  for  his  country  is  so 
small.  His  confidence  in  the  power  and  perform 
ance  of  his  nation  makes  him  provokingly  incur 
ious  about  other  nations.  He  dislikes  foreigners. 
Swedenborg,  who  lived  much  in  England,  notes 
"the  similitude  of  minds  among  the  English,  in 
consequence  of  which  they  contract  familiarity 
with  friends  who  are  of  that  nation,  and  seldom 
with  others :  and  they  regard  foreigners,  as  one 
looking  through  a  telescope  from  the  top  of  a 
palace  regards  those  who  dwell  or  wander  about 
out  of  the  city."  A  much  older  traveller,  the 
Venetian  who  wrote  the  "Relation  of  England,"1 
in  1500,  says: — "The  English  are  great  lovers  of 

107 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

themselves,  and  of  everything  belonging  to  them. 
They  think  that  there  are  no  other  men  than  them 
selves,  and  no  other  world  but  England ;  and,  when 
ever  they  see  a  handsome  foreigner,  they  say  that 
he  looks  like  an  Englishman,  and  it  is  a  great  pity 
he  should  not  be  an  Englishman ;  and  whenever 
they  partake  of  any  delicacy  with  a  foreigner,  they 
ask  him  whether  such  a  thing  is  made  in  his  coun 
try."  When  he  adds  epithets  of  praise,  his  climax 
is  "  so  English  "  ;  and  when  he  wishes  to  pay  you 
the  highest  compliment,  he  says,  I  should  not  know 
you  from  an  Englishman.  France  is,  by  its  natural 
contrast,  a  kind  of  blackboard  on  which  English 
character  draws  its  own  traits  in  chalk.  This  arro 
gance  habitually  exhibits  itself  in  allusions  to  the 
French.  I  suppose  that  all  men  of  English  blood 
in  America,  Europe,  or  Asia,  have  a  secret  feeling 
of  joy  that  they  are  not  French  natives.  Mr.  Cole 
ridge  is  said  to  have  given  public  thanks  to  God,  at 
the  close  of  a  lecture,  that  He  had  defended  him 
from  being  able  to  utter  a  single  sentence  in  the 
French  language.  I  have  found  that  Englishmen 
have  such  a  good  opinion  of  England,  that  the 
ordinary  phrases,  in  all  good  society,  of  postponing 
or  disparaging  one's  own  things  in  talking  with  a 
stranger  are  seriously  mistaken  by  them  for  an 
insuppressible  homage  to  the  merits  of  their  nation ; 
and  the  New  YorkerorPennsylvanian  who  modestly 
laments  the  disadvantage  of  a  new  country,  log  huts, 
andsavages,  is  surprised  by  the  instant  and  unfeigned 
commiseration  of  the  whole  company,  who  plainly 
account  all  the  world  out  of  England  a  heap  of 
rubbish. 

The  same  insular  limitation  pinches  his  foreign 
politics.  He  sticks  to  his  traditions  and  usages,  and, 
108 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

so  help  him  God  !  he  will  force  his  island  by-laws 
down  the  throat  of  great  countries,  like  India,  China, 
Canada,  Australia,  and  not  only  so,  but  impose 
Wapping  on  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  and  trample 
down  all  nationalities  with  his  taxed  boots.  Lord 
Chatham  goes  for  liberty,  and  no  taxation  without 
representation  ; — for  that  is  British  law  ;  but  not  a 
hobnail  shall  they  dare  make  in  America,  but  buy 
their  nails  in  England, — for  that  also  is  British  law  ; 
and  the  fact  that  British  commerce  was  to  be  re 
created  by  the  independence  of  America  took  them 
all  by  surprise. 

In  short,  I  am  afraid  that  English  nature  is  so 
rank  and  aggressive  as  to  be  a  little  incompatible 
with  every  other.  The  world  is  not  wide  enough 
for  two. 

But,  beyond  this  nationality,  it  must  be  admitted, 
the  island  offers  a  daily  worship  to  the  old  Norse 
god  Brage,  celebrated  among  our  Scandinavian 
forefathers,  for  his  eloquence  and  majestic  air.  The 
English  have  a  steady  courage,  that  fits  them  for 
great  attempts  and  endurance :  they  have  also  a 
petty  courage,  through  which  every  man  delights 
in  showing  himself  for  what  he  is,  and  in  doing 
what  he  can;  so  that,  in  all  companies,  each  of 
them  has  too  good  an  opinion  of  himself  to  imitate 
anybody.  He  hides  no  defect  of  his  form,  features, 
dress,  connection,  or  birthplace,  for  he  thinks  every 
circumstance  belonging  to  him  comes  recommended 
to  you.  If  one  of  them  have  a  bald,  or  a  red,  or  a 
green  head,  or  bow  legs,  or  a  scar,  or  mark,  or  a 
paunch,  or  a  squeaking  or  a  raven  voice,  he  has 
persuaded  himself  that  there  is  something  modish 
and  becoming  in  it,  and  that  it  sits  well  on  him. 

But  nature  makes  nothing  in  vain,  and  this  little 

109 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

superfluity  of  self-regard  in  the  English  brain  is  one 
of  the  secrets  of  their  power  and  history.  For,  it 
sets  every  man  on  being  and  doing  what  he  really 
is  and  can.  It  takes  away  a  dodging,  skulking, 
secondary  air,  and  encourages  a  frank  and  manly 
bearing,  so  that  each  man  makes  the  most  of  him 
self,  and  loses  no  opportunity  for  want  of  pushing. 
A  man's  personal  defects  will  commonly  have  with 
the  rest  of  the  world  precisely  that  importance 
which  they  have  to  himself.  If  he  makes  light  of 
them,  so  will  other  men.  We  all  find  in  these  a 
convenient  meter  of  character,  since  a  little  man 
would  be  ruined  by  the  vexation.  I  remember  a 
shrewd  politician,  in  one  of  our  western  cities,  told 
me,  "  that  he  had  known  several  successful  states 
men  made  by  their  foible."  And  another,  an  ex- 
governor  of  Illinois,  said  to  me,  "  If  a  man  knew 
anything,  he  would  sit  in  a  corner  and  be  modest  ; 
but  he  is  such  an  ignorant  peacock,  that  he  goes 
bustling  up  and  down,  and  hits  on  extraordinary 
discoveries." 

There  is  also  this  benefit  in  brag,  that  the  speaker 
is  unconsciously  expressing  his  own  ideal.  Humor 
him  by  all  means,  draw  it  all  out,  and  hold  him  to 
it.  Their  culture  generally  enables  the  travelled 
English  to  avoid  any  ridiculous  extremes  of  this 
self-pleasing,  and  to  give  it  an  agreeable  air.  Then 
the  natural  disposition  is  fostered  by  the  respect 
which  they  find  entertained  in  the  world  for  English 
ability.  It  was  said  of  Louis  XIV.,  that  his  gait  and 
air  were  becoming  enough  in  so  great  a  monarch, 
yet  would  have  been  ridiculous  in  another  man  ;  so 
the  prestige  of  the  English  name  warrants  a  certain 
confident  bearing,  which  a  Frenchman  or  Belgian 
could  not  carry.  At  all  events,  they  feel  themselves 
110 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

at  liberty  to  assume  the  most  extraordinary  tone  on 
the  subject  of  English  merits. 

An  English  lady  on  the  Rhine,  hearing  a  German 
speaking  of  her  party  as  foreigners,  exclaimed, 
"  No,  we  are  not  foreigners  ;  we  are  English  ;  it  is 
you  that  are  foreigners."  They  tell  you  daily,  in 
London,  the  story  of  the  Frenchman  and  English 
man  who  quarrelled.  Both  were  unwilling  to  fight, 
but  their  companions  put  them  up  to  it ;  at  last,  it 
was  agreed  that  they  should  fight  alone,  in  the  dark, 
and  with  pistols:  the  candles  were  put  out,  and  the 
Englishman,  to  make  sure  not  to  hit  anybody,  fired 
up  the  chimney,  and  brought  down  the  Frenchman. 
They  have  no  curiosity  about  foreigners,  and  answer 
any  information  you  may  volunteer  with  "  Oh,  oh  ! " 
until  the  informant  makes  up  his  mind  that  they 
shall  die  in  their  ignorance  for  any  help  he  will 
offer.  There  are  really  no  limits  to  this  conceit, 
though  brighter  men  among  them  make  painful 
efforts  to  be  candid. 

The  habit  of  brag  runs  through  all  classes,  from  the 
Times"  newspaper  through  politicians  and  poets, 
through  Wordsworth,  Carlyle,  Mill,  and  Sydney 
Smith,  down  to  the  boys  of  Eton.  In  the  gravest 
treatise  on  political  economy,  in  a  philosophical 
essay,  in  books  of  science,  one  is  surprised  by  the 
most  innocent  exhibition  of  unflinching  nationality. 
In  a  tract  on  Corn,  a  most  amiable  and  accomplished 
gentleman  writes  thus : — "  Though  Britain,  accord 
ing  to  Bishop  Berkeley's  idea,  were  surrounded  by 
a  wall  of  brass  ten  thousand  cubits  in  height,  still 
she  would  as  far  excel  the  rest  of  the  globe  in  riches, 
as  she  now  does,  both  in  this  secondary  quality, 
and  in  the  more  important  ones  of  freedom,  virtue, 
and  science,"2 

111 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

The  English  dislike  the  American  structure  of 
society,  whilst  yet  trade,  mills,  public  education, 
and  chartism  are  doing  what  they  can  to  create  in 
England  the  same  social  condition.  America  is  the 
paradise  of  the  economists  ;  is  the  favorable  excep 
tion  invariably  quoted  to  the  rules  of  ruin ;  but 
when  he  speaks  directly  of  the  Americans,  the 
islander  forgets  his  philosophy,  and  remembers  his 
disparaging  anecdotes. 

But  this  childish  patriotism  costs  something,  like 
all  narrowness.  The  English  sway  of  their  colonies 
has  no  root  of  kindness.  They  govern  by  their  arts 
and  ability;  they  are  more  just  than  kind;  and, 
whenever  an  abatement  of  their  power  is  felt,  they 
have  not  conciliated  the  affection  on  which  to  rely. 

Coarse  local  distinctions,  as  those  of  nation,  pro 
vince,  or  town,  are  useful  in  the  absence  of  real 
ones  ;  but  we  must  not  insist  on  these  accidental 
lines.  Individual  traits  are  always  triumphing  over 
national  ones.  There  is  no  fence  in  metaphysics 
discriminating  Greek,  or  English,  or  Spanish  science. 
JEsop,  and  Montaigne,  Cervantes,  and  Saadi  are 
men  of  the  world  ;  and  to  wave  our  own  flag  at  the 
dinner-table  or  in  the  University,  is  to  carry  the 
boisterous  dulness  of  a  fire-club  into  a  polite  circle. 
Nature  and  destiny  are  always  on  the  watch  for 
our  follies.  Nature  trips  us  up  when  we  strut ;  and 
there  are  curious  examples  in  history  on  this  very 
point  of  national  pride. 

George  of  Cappadocia,  born  at  Epiphania  in 
Cilicia,  was  a  low  parasite,  who  got  a  lucrative 
contract  to  supply  the  army  with  bacon.  A  rogue 
and  informer,  he  got  rich,  and  was  forced  to  run 
from  justice.  He  saved  1  ;s  money,  embraced 
Arianism,  collected  a  library,  and  got  promoted 
112 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

by  a  faction  to  the  episcopal  throne  of  Alexandria. 
When  Julian  came,  A.D.  361,  George  was  dragged 
to  prison  ;  the  prison  was  burst  open  by  the  mob, 
and  George  was  lynched,  as  he  deserved.  And  this 
precious  knave  became,  in  good  time,  Saint  George 
of  England,  patron  of  chivalry,  emblem  of  victory 
and  civility,  and  the  pride  of  the  best  blood  of  the 
modern  world. 

Strange,  that  the  solid  truth-speaking  Briton 
should  derive  from  an  impostor.  Strange,  that  the 
New  World  should  have  no  better  luck, — that  broad 
America  must  wear  the  name  of  a  thief.  Amerigo 
Vespucci,  the  pickle-dealer  at  Seville,  who  went  out, 
in  1499,  a  subaltern  with  Hojeda,  and  whose  highest 
naval  rank  was  boatswain's  mate  in  an  expedition 
that  never  sailed,  managed  in  this  lying  world  to 
supplant  Columbus,  and  baptize  half  the  earth  with 
his  own  dishonest  name.  Thus  nobody  can  throw 
stones.  We  are  equally  badly  off  in  our  founders ; 
and  the  false  pickle-dealer  is  an  offset  to  the  false 
bacon-seller. 


NOTES 

Printed  by  the  Camden  Society. 
William  Spence. 


fa  113 


CHAPTER  X.  WEALTH 

F  Bf  '^HERE  is  no  country  in  which  so  absolute 
a  homage  is  paid  to  wealth.  In  America, 
there  is  a  touch  of  shame  when  a  man 
JL  exhibits  the  evidences  of  large  property, 
as  if,  after  all,  it  needed  apology.  But  the  English 
man  has  pure  pride  in  his  wealth,  and  esteems  it  a 
final  certificate.  A  coarse  logic  rules  throughout 
all  English  souls  ; — if  you  have  merit,  can  you  not 
show  it  by  your  good  clothes,  and  coach  and  horses? 
How  can  a  man  be  a  gentleman  without  a  pipe  of 
wine  ?  Haydon  says,  "  There  is  a  fierce  resolution 
to  make  every  man  live  according  to  the  means  he 
possesses."  There  is  a  mixture  of  religion  in  it. 
They  are  under  the  Jewish  law,  and  read  with 
sonorous  emphasis  that  their  days  shall  be  long  in 
the  land,  they  shall  have  sons  and  daughters,  flocks 
and  herds,  wine  and  oil.  In  exact  proportion,  is 
the  reproach  of  poverty.  They  do  not  wish  to  be 
represented  except  by  opulent  men.  An  English 
man  who  has  lost  his  fortune,  is  said  to  have  died 
of  a  broken  heart.  The  last  term  of  insult  is,  "  a 
beggar."  Nelson  said,  "  The  want  of  fortune  is  a 
crime  which  I  can  never  get  over."  Sydney  Smith 
said,  "  Poverty  is  infamous  in  England."  And  one 
of  their  recent  writers  speaks,  in  reference  to  a 
private  and  scholastic  life,  of  "the  grave  moral 
deterioration  which  follows  an  empty  exchequer." 
You  shall  find  this  sentiment,  if  not  so  frankly  put, 
yet  deeply  implied,  in  the  novels  and  romances  of 
the  present  century,  and  not  only  in  these,  but  in 
biography,  and  in  the  votes  of  public  assemblies,  in 
the  tone  of  the  preaching,  and  in  the  table-talk. 

I  was  lately  turning  over  Wood's  "  Athena?  Oxoni- 
enses,"and  looking  naturally  for  another  standard  in 

115 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

a  chronicle  of  the  scholars  of  Oxford  for  two  hundred 
years.  But  I  found  the  two  disgraces  in  that,  as  in 
most  English  books,  are,  first,  disloyalty  to  Church 
and  State,  and,  second,  to  be  born  poor,  or  to  come 
to  poverty.  A  natural  fruit  of  England  is  the  brutal 
political  economy.  Malthus  finds  no  cover  laid  at 
nature's  table  for  the  laborer's  son.  In  1809,  the 
majority  in  Parliament  expressed  itself  by  the  lan 
guage  of  Mr.  Fuller  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
*'  If  you  do  not  like  the  country,  damn  you,  you  can 
leave  it."  When  Sir  S.  Romilly  proposed  his  bill 
forbidding  parish  officers  to  bind  children  appren 
tices  at  a  greater  distance  than  forty  miles  from 
their  home,  Peel  opposed,  and  Mr.  Wortley  said, 
"  Though  in  the  higher  ranks,  to  cultivate  family 
affections  was  a  good  thing,  'twas  not  so  among  the 
lower  orders.  Better  take  them  away  from  those 
who  might  deprave  them.  And  it  was  highly  in 
jurious  to  trade  to  stop  binding  to  manufactures, 
as  it  must  raise  the  price  of  labour,  and  of  manu 
factured  goods." 

The  respect  for  truth  of  facts  in  England  is 
equalled  only  by  the  respect  for  wealth.  It  is  at 
once  the  pride  of  art  of  the  Saxon,  as  he  is  a  wealth- 
maker,  and  his  passion  for  independence.  The 
Englishman  believes  that  every  man  must  take 
care  of  himself,  and  has  himself  to  thank,  if  he  do 
not  mend  his  condition.  To  pay  their  debts  is  their 
national  point  of  honor.  From  the  Exchequer  and 
the  East  India  House  to  the  huckster's  shop,  every 
thing  prospers,  because  it  is  solvent.  The  British 
armies  are  solvent,  and  pay  for  what  they  take. 
The  British  Empire  is  solvent ;  for,  in  spite  of  the 
huge  national  debt,  the  valuation  mounts.  During 
the  war  from  1789  to  1815,  whilst  they  complained 
116 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

that  they  were  taxed  within  an  inch  of  their  lives, 
and,  by  dint  of  enormous  taxes,  were  subsidizing 
all  the  continent  against  France,  the  English  were 
growing  rich  every  year  faster  than  any  people  ever 
grew  before.  It  is  their  maxim,  that  the  weight  of 
taxes  must  be  calculated  not  by  what  is  taken, 
but  by  what  is  left.  Solvency  is  in  the  ideas  and 
mechanism  of  an  Englishman.  The  Crystal  Palace 
is  not  considered  honest  until  it  pays ;— no  matter 
how  much  convenience,  beauty,  or  eclat,  it  must  be 
self-supporting.  They  are  contented  with  slower 
steamers,  as  long  as  they  know  the  swifter  boats 
lose  money.  They  proceed  logically  by  the  double 
method  of  labor  and  thrift.  Every  household  exhi 
bits  an  exact  economy,  and  nothing  of  that  uncal- 
culated  headlong  expenditure  which  families  use  in 
America.  If  they  cannot  pay,  they  do  not  buy ; 
for  they  have  no  presumption  of  better  fortunes 
next  year,  as  our  people  have  ;  and  tl:ey  say  with 
out  shame,  I  cannot  afford  it.  Gentlemen  do  not 
hesitate  to  ride  in  the  second-class  cars,  or  in  the 
second  cabin.  An  economist,  or  a  man  who  can 
proportion  his  means  and  his  ambition,  or  bring  the 
year  round  with  expenditure  which  expresses  his 
character,  without  embarrassing  one  day  of  his 
future,  is  already  a  master  of  life,  and  a  freeman. 
Lord  Burleigh  writes  to  his  son,  '  that  one  ought 
never  to  devote  more  than  two-thirds  of  his  income 
to  the  ordinary  expenses  of  life,  since  the  extra 
ordinary  will  be  certain  to  absorb  the  other  third." 
The  ambition  to  create  value  evokes  every  kind 
of  ability,  government  becomes  a  manufacturing 
corporation,  and  every  house  a  mill.  The  headlong 
bias  to  utility  will  let  no  talent  lie  in  a  napkin, — if 
possible,  will  teach  spiders  to  weave  silk  stockings. 

117 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

An  Englishman,  while  he  eats  and  drinks  no  more, 
or  not  much  more,  than  another  man,  labors  three 
times  as  many  hours  in  the  course  of  a  year  as  any 
other  European  ;  or  his  life  as  a  workman  is  three 
lives.  He  works  fast.  Everything  in  England  is 
at  a  quick  pace.  They  have  reinforced  their  own 
productivity  by  the  creation  of  that  marvellous 
machinery  which  differences  this  age  from  any 
other  age. 

'Tis  a  curious  chapter  in  modern  history,  the 
growth  of  the  machine-shop.  Six  hundred  years 
ago  Roger  Bacon  explained  the  precession  of  the 
equinoxes,  the  consequent  necessity  of  the  reform 
of  the  calendar;  measured  the  length  of  the  year, 
invented  gunpowder ;  and  announced  (as  if  looking 
from  his  lofty  cell,  over  five  centuries,  into  ours), 
"that  machines  can  be  constructed  to  drive  ships 
more  rapidly  than  a  whole  galley  of  rowers  could 
do;  «or  would  they  need  anything  but  a  pilot  to 
steer  them.  Carriages  also  might  be  constructed 
to  move  with  an  incredible  speed,  without  the  aid 
of  any  animal.  Finally,  it  would  not  be  impossible 
to  make  machines  which,  by  means  of  a  suit  of 
wings,  should  fly  in  the  air  in  the  manner  of  birds." 
But  the  secret  slept  with  Bacon.  The  six  hundred 
years  have  not  yet  fulfilled  his  words.  Two  cen 
turies  ago  the  sawing  of  timber  was  done  by  hand; 
the  carriage  wheels  ran  on  wooden  axles;  the  land 
was  tilled  by  wooden  ploughs.  And  it  was  to  little 
purpose  that  they  had  pit-coal,  or  that  looms  were 
improved,  unless  Watt  and  Stephenson  had  taught 
them  to  work  force-pumps  and  power-looms  by 
steam.  The  great  strides  were  all  taken  within  the 
last  hundred  years.  The  Life  of  Sir  Robert  Peel, 
who  died  the  other  day,  the  model  Englishman, 
118 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

very  properly  has  for  a  frontispiece  a  drawing  of 
the  spinning-jenny,  which  wove  the  web  of  his  for 
tunes.  Hargreaves  invented  the  spinning-jenny, 
and  died  in  a  workhouse.  Arkwright  improved  the 
invention ;  and  the  machine  dispensed  with  the  work 
of  ninety-nine  men :  that  is,  one  spinner  could  do  as 
much  work  as  one  hundred  had  done  before.  The 
loom  was  improved  further.  But  the  men  would 
sometimes  strike  for  wages,  and  combine  against 
the  masters,  and,  about  1829-30,  much  fear  was 
felt,  lest  the  trade  would  be  drawn  away  by  these 
interruptions,  and  the  emigration  of  the  spinners  to 
Belgium  and  the  United  States.  Iron  and  steel  are 
very  obedient.  Whether  it  were  not  possible  to 
make  a  spinner  that  would  not  rebel,  nor  mutter, 
nor  scowl,  nor  strike  for  wages,  nor  emigrate  ?  At 
the  solicitation  of  the  masters,  after  a  mob  and 
riot  at  Staley  Bridge,  Mr.  Roberts,  of  Manchester, 
undertook  to  create  this  peaceful  fellow,  instead  of 
the  quarrelsome  fellow  God  had  made.  After  a  few 
trials  he  succeeded,  and  in  1830  procured  a  patent 
for  his  self-acting  mule ;  a  creation  the  delight  of 
mill-owners,  and  "destined,"  they  said,  "to  restore 
order  among  the  industrious  classes " ;  a  machine 
requiring  only  a  child's  hand  to  piece  the  broken 
yarns.  As  Arkwright  had  destroyed  domestic  spin 
ning,  so  Roberts  destroyed  the  factory  spinner.  The 
power  of  machinery  in  Great  Britain,  in  mills,  has 
been  computed  to  be  equal  to  600,000,000  men,  one 
man  being  able  by  the  aid  of  steam  to  do  the  work 
which  required  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  to  ac 
complish  fifty  years  ago.  The  production  has  been 
commensurate.  England  already  had  this  laborious 
race,  rich  soil,  water,  wood,  coal,  iron,  and  favorable 
climate.  Eight  hundred  years  ago  commerce  had 

119 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

made  it  rich,  and  it  was  recorded,  "  England  is  the 
richest  of  all  the  northern  nations."  The  Norman 
historians  recite  that,  "in  1067,  William  carried 
with  him  into  Normandy,  from  England,  more  gold 
and  silver  than  had  ever  before  been  seen  in  Gaul." 
But  when  to  this  labor  and  trade  and  these  native 
resources  was  added  this  goblin  of  steam,  with  his 
myriad  arms,  never  tired,  working  night  and  day 
everlastingly,  the  amassing  of  property  has  run  out 
of  all  figures.  It  makes  the  motor  of  the  last  ninety 
years.  The  steampipe  has  added  to  her  population 
and  wealth  the  equivalent  of  four  or  five  Englands. 
Forty  thousand  ships  are  entered  in  Lloyd's  lists. 
The  yield  of  wheat  has  gone  on  from  2,000,000 
quarters  in  the  time  of  the  Stuarts,  to  13,000,000  in 
1854.  A  thousand  million  of  pounds  sterling  are  said 
to  compose  the  floating  money  of  commerce.  In 
1848  Lord  John  Russell  stated  that  the  people  of 
this  country  had  laid  out  £300,000,000  of  capital 
in  railways  in  the  last  four  years.  But  a  better 
measure  than  these  sounding  figures  is  the  estimate 
that  there  is  wealth  enough  in  England  to  support 
the  entire  population  in  idleness  for  one  year. 

The  wise,  versatile,  all-giving  machinery  makes 
chisels,  roads,  locomotives,  telegraphs.  Whitworth 
divides  a  bar  to  a  millionth  of  an  inch.  Steam 
twines  huge  cannon  into  wreaths,  as  easily  as  it 
braids  straw,  and  vies  with  the  volcanic  forces  which 
twisted  the  strata.  It  can  clothe  shingle  mountains 
with  ship-oaks,  make  sword-blades  that  will  cut 
gun-barrels  in  two.  In  Egypt,  it  can  plant  forests, 
and  bring  rain  after  three  thousand  years.  Already 
it  is  ruddering  the  balloon,  and  the  next  war  will  be 
fought  in  the  air.  But  another  machine  more  potent 
in  England  than  steam,  is  the  Bank.  It  votes  an 
120 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

issue  of  bills,  population  is  stimulated,  and  cities 
rise ;  it  refuses  loans,  and  emigration  empties  the 
country  ;  trade  sinks  ;  revolutions  break  out ;  kings 
are  dethroned.  By  these  new  agents  our  social 
system  is  moulded.  By  dint  of  steam  and  of  money, 
war  and  commerce  are  changed.  Nations  have  lost 
their  old  omnipotence ;  the  patriotic  tie  does  not 
hold.  Nations  are  getting  obsolete,  we  go  and  live 
where  we  will.  Steam  has  enabled  men  to  choose 
what  law  they  will  live  under.  Money  makes  place 
for  them.  The  telegraph  is  a  limp-band  that  will 
hold  the  Fenris-wolf  of  war.  For  now  that  a  tele 
graph  line  runs  through  France  and  Europe,  from 
London,  every  message  it  transmits  makes  stronger 
by  one  thread  the  band  which  war  will  have  to 
cut. 

The  introduction  of  these  elements  gives  new 
resources  to  existing  proprietors.  A  sporting  duke 
may  fancy  that  the  state  depends  on  the  House  of 
Lords,  but  the  engineer  sees  that  every  stroke  of 
the  steam-piston  gives  value  to  the  duke's  land,  fills 
it  with  tenants;  doubles,  quadruples,  centuples  the 
duke's  capital,  and  creates  new  measures  and  new 
necessities  for  the  culture  of  his  children.  Of  course, 
it  draws  the  nobility  into  the  competition  as  stock 
holders  in  the  mine,  the  canal,  the  railway,  in  the 
application  of  steam  to  agriculture,  and  sometimes 
into  trade.  But  it  also  introduces  large  classes  into 
the  same  competition  ;  the  old  energy  of  the  Norse 
race  arms  itself  with  these  magnificent  powers ;  new 
men  prove  an  overmatch  for  the  land-owner,  and  the 
mill  buys  out  the  castle.  Scandinavian  Thor,  who 
once  forged  his  bolts  in  icy  Hecla  and  built  galleys 
by  lonely  fiords,  in  England  has  advanced  with  the 
times,  has  shorn  his  beard,  enters  Parliament,  sits 

121 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

down  at  a  desk   in  the  India  House,  and  lends 
Miollnir  to  Birmingham  for  a  steam-hammer. 

The  creation  of  wealth  in  England  in  the  last 
ninety  years  is  a  main  fact  in  modern  history.  The 
wealth  of  London  determines  prices  all  over  the 
globe.  All  things  precious,  or  useful,  or  amusing, 
or  intoxicating,  are  sucked  into  this  commerce  and 
floated  to  London.  Some  English  private  fortunes 
reach,  and  some  exceed,  a  million  of  dollars  a  year. 
A  hundred  thousand  palaces  adorn  the  island.  All 
that  can  feed  the  senses  and  passions,  all  that  can 
succor  the  talent,  or  arm  the  hands,  of  the  intelli 
gent  middle  class,  who  never  spare  in  what  they 
buy  for  their  own  consumption;  all  that  can  aid 
science,  gratify  taste,  or  soothe  comfort,  is  in  open 
market.  Whatever  is  excellent  and  beautiful  in 
civil,  rural,  or  ecclesiastic  architecture ;  in  fountain, 
garden,  or  grounds ;  the  English  noble  crosses  sea 
and  land  to  see  and  to  copy  at  home.  The  taste 
and  science  of  thirty  peaceful  generations;  the 
gardens  which  Evelyn  planted;  the  temples  and 
pleasure-houses  which  Inigo  Jones  and  Christopher 
Wren  built ;  the  wood  that  Gibbons  carved ;  the 
taste  of  foreign  and  domestic  artists,  Shenstone, 
Pope,  Brown,  Loudon,  Paxton,  are  in  the  vast 
auction,  and  the  hereditary  principle  heaps  on  the 
owner  of  to-day  the  benefit  of  ages  of  owners.  The 
present  possessors  are  to  the  full  as  absolute  as  any 
of  their  fathers,  in  choosing  and  procuring  what 
they  like.  This  comfort  and  splendor,  the  breadth 
of  lake  and  mountain,  tillage,  pasture,  and  park, 
sumptuous  castle  and  modern  villa, — all  consist 
with  perfect  order.  They  have  no  revolutions ;  no 
horse-guards  dictating  to  the  crown ;  no  Parisian 
poissardes  and  barricades ;  no  mob :  but  drowsy 
122 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

habitude,  daily  dress-dinners,  wine,  and  ale,  and 
beer,  and  gin,  and  sleep. 

With  this  power  of  creation,  and  this  passion  for 
independence,  property  has  reached  an  ideal  per 
fection.  It  is  felt  and  treated  as  the  national  life- 
blood.  The  laws  are  framed  to  give  property  the 
securest  possible  basis,  and  the  provisions  to  lock 
and  transmit  it  have  exercised  the  cunningest  heads 
in  a  t  profession  which  never  admits  a  fool.  The 
rights  of  property  nothing  but  felony  and  treason 
can  override.  The  house  is  a  castle  which  the  king 
cannot  enter.  The  Bank  is  a  strong  box  to  which 
the  king  has  no  key.  Whatever  surly  sweetness 
possession  can  give,  is  tested  in  England  to  the 
dregs.  Vested  rights  are  awful  things,  and  absolute 
possession  gives  the  smallest  freeholder  identity 
of  interest  with]  the  duke.  High  stone  fences  and 
padlocked  garden-gates  announce  the  absolute  will 
of  the  owner  to  be  alone.  Every  whim  of  exagge 
rated  egotism  is  put  into  stone  and  iron,  into  silver 
and  gold,  with  costly  deliberation  and  detail. 

An  Englishman  hears  that  the  Queen  Dowager 
wishes  to  establish  some  claim  to  put  her  park 
paling  a  rod  forward  into  his  grounds,  so  as  to  get 
a  coachway,  and  save  her  a  mile  to  the  avenue. 
Instantly  he  transforms  his  paling  into  stone- 
masonry,  solid  as  the  walls  of  Guma,  and  all  Europe 
cannot  prevail  on  him  to  sell  or  compound  for  an 
inch  of  the  land.  They  delight  in  a  freak  as  the 
proof  of  their  sovereign  freedom.  Sir  Edward 
Boynton,  at  Spic  Park,  at  Cadenham,  on  a  preci 
pice  of  incomparable  prospect,  built  a  house  like 
a  long  barn,  which  had  not  a  window  on  the  pro 
spect  side.  Strawberry  Hill  of  Horace  Walpole, 
Fouthill  Abbey  of  Mr.  Beckford,  were  freaks ;  and 

123 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

Newstead  Abbey  became  one  in  the  hands  of  Lord 
Byron. 

But  the  proudest  result  of  this  creation  has  been 
the  great  and  refined  forces  it  has  put  at  the  dis 
posal  of  the  private  citizen.  In  the  social  wrrld,  an 
Englishman  to-day  has  the  best  lot.  He  is  a  king 
in  a  plain  coat.  He  goes  with  the  most  powerful 
protection,  keeps  the  best  company,  is  armed  by 
the  best  education,  is  seconded  by  wealth  ;  and  his 
English  name  and  accidents  are  like  a  flourish  of 
trumpets  announcing  him.  This,  with  his  quiet 
style  of  manners,  gives  him  the  power  of  a  sovereign, 
without  the  inconveniences  which  belong  to  that 
rank.  I  must  prefer  the  condition  of  an  English 
gentleman  of  the  better  class,  to  that  of  any  poten 
tate  in  Europe, — whether  for  travel,  or  for  oppor 
tunity  of  society,  or  for  access  to  means  of  science 
or  study,  or  for  mere  comfort  and  easy  healthy 
relation  to  people  at  home. 

Such  as  we  have  seen  is  the  wealth  of  England, 
a  mighty  mass,  and  made  good  in  whatever  details 
we  care  to  explore.  The  cause  and  spring  of  it  is 
the  wealth  of  temperament  in  the  people.  The 
wonder  of  Britain  is  this  plenteous  nature.  Her 
worthies  are  ever  surrounded  by  as  good  men  as 
themselves ;  each  is  a  captain  a  hundred  strong,  and 
that  wealth  of  men  is  represented  again  in  the  faculty 
of  each  individual, — that  he  has  waste  strength, 
power  to  spare.  The  English  are  so  rich  and  seem 
to  have  established  a  tap-root  in  the  bowels  of  the 
planet,  because  they  are  constitutionally  fertile  and 
creative. 

But  a  man  must  keep  an  eye  on  his  servants,  if 
he  would  not  have  them  rule  him.  Man  is  a  shrewd 
inventor,  and  is  ever  taking  the  hint  of  a  new 
124 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

machine  from  his  own  structure,  adapting  some 
secret  of  his  own  anatomy  in  iron,  wood,  and  leather, 
to  some  required  function  in  the  work  of  the  world. 
But  it  is  found  that  the  machine  unmans  the  user. 
What  he  gains  in  making  cloth,  he  loses  in  general 
power.  There  should  be  temperance  in  making 
cloth,  as  well  as  in  eating.  A  man  should  not  be 
a  silk-worm,  nor  a  nation  a  tent  of  caterpillars. 
The  robust  rural  Saxon  degenerates  in  the  mills 
to  the  Leicester  stockinger,  to  the  imbecile  Man 
chester  spinner, — far  on  the  way  to  be  spiders  and 
needles.  The  incessant  repetition  of  the  same  hand 
work  dwarfs  the  man,  robs  him  of  his  strength,  wit, 
and  versatility,  to  make  a  pin-polisher,  a  buckle- 
maker,  or  any  other  specialty  ;  and  presently,  in  a 
change  of  industry,  whole  towns  are  sacrificed  like 
ant-hills,  when  the  fashion  of  shoe-strings  super 
sedes  buckles,  when  cotton  takes  the  place  of  linen, 
or  railways  of  turnpikes,  or  ,when  commons  are 
inclosed  by  landlords.  Then  society  is  admonished 
of  the  mischief  of  the  division  of  labor,  and  that  the 
best  political  economy  is  care  and  culture  of  men ; 
for,  in  these  crises,  all  are  ruined  except  such  as 
are  proper  individuals,  capable  of  thought,  and  of 
new  choice  and  the  application  of  their  talent  to 
new  labor.  Then  again  come  in  new  calamities. 
England  is  aghast  at  the  disclosure  of  her  fraud  in 
the  adulteration  of  food,  of  drugs,  and  of  almost 
every  fabric  in  her  mills  and  shops ;  finding  that 
milk  will  not  nourish,  nor  sugar  sweeten,  nor  bread 
satisfy,  nor  pepper  bite  the  tongue,  nor  glue  stick. 
In  true  England  all  is  false  and  forged.  This  too 
is  the  reaction  of  machinery,  but  of  the  larger 
machinery  of  commerce.  'Tis  not,  I  suppose,  want 
of  probity,  so  much  as  the  tyranny  of  trade,  which 

125 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

necessitates  a  perpetual  competition  of  undersell 
ing,  and  that  again  a  perpetual  deterioration  of  the 
fabric. 

The  machinery  has  proved,  like  the  balloon, 
unmanageable,  and  flies  away  with  the  aeronaut. 
Steam,  from  the  first,  hissed  and  screamed  to  warn 
him  ;  it  was  dreadful  with  its  explosion,  and  crushed 
the  engineer.  The  machinist  has  wrought  and 
watched,  engineers  and  firemen  without  number 
have  been  sacrificed  in  learning  to  tame  and  guide 
the  monster.  But  harder  still  it  has  proved  to  resist 
and  rule  the  dragon  Money,  with  his  paper  wings. 
Chancellors  and  Boards  of  Trade,  Pitt,  Peel,  and 
Robinson,  and  their  Parliaments,  and  their  whole 
generation,  adopted  false  principles,  and  went  to 
their  graves  in  the  belief  that  they  were  enriching 
the  country  which  they  were  impoverishing.  They 
congratulated  each  other  on  ruinous  expedients.  It 
is  rare  to  find  a  merchant  who  knows  why  a  crisis 
occurs  in  trade,  why  prices  rise  or  fall,  or  who  knows 
the  mischief  of  paper  money.  In  the  culmination  of 
national  prosperity,  in  the  annexation  of  countries ; 
building  of  ships,  depots,  towns  ;  in  the  influx  of 
tons  of  gold  and  silver;  amid  the  chuckle  of  chan 
cellors  and  financiers,  it  was  found  that  bread  rose 
to  famine  prices,  that  the  yeoman  was  forced  to  sell 
his  cow  and  pig,  his  tools,  and  his  acre  of  land ; 
and  the  dreadful  barometer  of  the  poor-rates  was 
touching  the  point  of  ruin.  The  poor-rate  was 
sucking  in  the  solvent  classes,  and  forcing  an  exo 
dus  of  farmers  and  mechanics.  What  befalls  from 
the  violence  of  financial  crisis,  befalls  daily  in  the 
violence  of  artificial  legislation. 

Such  a  wealth  has  England  earned,  ever  new, 
bounteous,  and  augmenting.  But  the  question 
126 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

recurs,  does  she  take  the  step  beyond,  namely,  to  the 
wise  use,  in  view  of  the  supreme  wealth  of  nations  ? 
We  estimate  the  wisdom  of  nations  by  seeing  what 
they  did  with  their  surplus  capital.  And,  in  view 
of  these  injuries,  some  compensation  has  been 
attempted  in  England.  A  part  of  the  money  earned 
returns  to  the  brain  to  buy  schools,  libraries,  bishops, 
astronomers,  chemists,  and  artists  with;  and  a  part 
to  repair  the  wrongs  of  this  intemperate  weaving, 
by  hospitals,  savings-banks,  Mechanics'  Institutes, 
public  grounds,  and  other  charities  and  amenities. 
But  the  antidotes  are  frightfully  inadequate,  and 
the  evil  requires  a  deeper  cure,  which  time  and  a 
simpler  social  organization  must  supply.  At  pre 
sent,  she  does  not  rule  her  wealth.  She  is  simply 
a  good  England,  but  no  divinity,  or  wise  and  in 
structed  soul.  She  too  is  in  the  stream  of  fate,  one 
victim  more  in  a  common  catastrophe. 

But  being  in  the  fault,  she  has  the  misfortune  of 
greatness  to  be  held  as  the  chief  offender.  England 
must  be  held  responsible  for  the  despotism  of  ex 
pense.  Her  prosperity,  the  splendor  which  so  much 
manhood  and  talent  and  perseverance  has  thrown 
upon  vulgar  aims,  is  the  very  argument  of  mate 
rialism.  Her  success  strengthens  the  hands  of  base 
wealth.  Who  can  propose  to  youth  poverty  and 
wisdom,  when  mean  gain  has  arrived  at  the  con 
quest  of  letters  and  arts ;  when  English  success 
has  grown  out  of  the  very  renunciation  of  prin 
ciples,  and  the  dedication  to  outsides?  A  civility  of 
trifles,  of  money  and  expense,  an  erudition  of  sensa 
tion  takes  place,  and  the  putting  as  many  impedi 
ments  as  we  can,  between  the  man  and  his  objects. 
Hardly  the  bravest  among  them  have  the  manliness 
to  resist  it  successfully.  Hence,  it  has  come  that 

127 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

not  the  aims  of  a  manly  life,  but  the  means  of  meet 
ing  a  certain  ponderous  expense,  is  that  which  is 
to  be  considered  by  a  youth  in  England,  emerging 
from  his  minority.  A  large  family  is  reckoned  a 
misfortune.  And  it  is  a  consolation  in  the  death  of 
the  young,  that  a  source  of  expense  is  closed. 


128 


I 


CHAPTER  XL  ARISTOCRACY 

iF  •  ^HE  feudal  character  of  the  English  state, 
now  that  it  is  getting  obsolete,  glares  a 
little,  in  contrast  with  the  democratic 
tendencies.  The  inequality  of  power  and 
property  shocks  republican  nerves.  Palaces,  halls, 
villas,  walled  parks,  all  over  England,  rival  the 
splendor  of  royal  seats.  Many  of  the  halls,  like 
Haddon,  or  Kedleston,  are  beautiful  desolations. 
The  proprietor  never  saw  them,  or  never  lived  in 
them.  Primogeniture  built  these  sumptuous  piles, 
and,  I  suppose,  it  is  the  sentiment  of  every  traveller 
as  it  was  mine,  'Twas  well  to  come  ere  these  were 
gone.  Primogeniture  is  a  cardinal  rule  of  English 
property  and  institutions.  Laws,  customs,  manners, 
the  very  persons  and  faces,  affirm  it. 

The  frame  of  society  is  aristocratic,  the  taste  of 
the  people  is  loyal.  The  estates,  names,  and  manners 
of  the  nobles  flatter  the  fancy  of  the  people,  and  con 
ciliate  the  necessary  support.  In  spite  of  broken 
faith,  stolen  charters,  and  the  devastation  of  society 
by  the  profligacy  of  the  court,  we  take  sides  as  we 
read  for  the  loyal  England  and  King  Charles's  "re 
turn  to  his  right"  with  his  Cavaliers, — knowing 
what  a  heartless  trifler  he  is,  and  what  a  crew  of 
God-forsaken  robbers  they  are.  The  people  of 
England  knew  as  much.  But  the  fair  idea  of  a 
settled  government  connecting  itself  with  heraldic 
names,  with  the  written  and  oral  history  of  Europe, 
and,  at  last,  with  the  Hebrew  religion,  and  the  oldest 
traditions  of  the  world,  was  too  pleasing  a  vision  to 
be  shattered  by  a  few  offensive  realities,  and  the 
politics  of  shoe-makers  and  costermongers.  The 
hopes  of  the  commoners  take  the  same  direction 
with  the  interest  of  the  patricians.  Every  man  who 
i  129 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

becomes  rich  buys  land,  and  does  what  he  can  to 
fortify  the  nobility,  into  which  he  hopes  to  rise. 
The  Anglican  clergy  are  identified  with  the  aristo 
cracy.  Time  and  law  have  made  the  joining  and 
moulding  perfect  in  every  part.  The  Cathedrals, 
the  Universities,  the  national  music,  the  popular 
romances,  conspire  to  uphold  the  heraldry,  which 
the  current  politics  of  the  day  are  sapping.  The 
taste  of  the  people  is  conservative.  They  are  proud 
of  the  castles,  and  of  the  language  and  symbol  of 
chivalry.  Even  the  word  lord  is  the  luckiest  style 
that  is  used  in  any  language  to  designate  a  patrician. 
The  superior  education  and  manners  of  the  nobles 
recommend  them  to  the  country. 

The  Norwegian  pirate  got  what  he  could,  and 
held  it  for  his  eldest  son.  The  Norman  noble,  who 
was  the  Norwegian  pirate  baptized,  did  likewise. 
There  was  this  advantage  of  western  over  oriental 
nobility,  that  this  was  recruited  from  below.  English 
history  is  aristocracy  with  the  doors  open.  Who  has 
courage  and  faculty,  let  him  come  in.  Of  course, 
the  terms  of  admission  to  this  club  are  hard  and 
high.  The  selfishness  of  the  nobles  comes  in  aid  of 
the  interest  of  the  nation  to  require  signal  merit. 
Piracy  and  war  gave  place  to  trade,  politics,  and 
letters  ;  the  war-lord  to  the  law-lord  ;  the  law-lord 
to  the  merchant  and  the  mill-owner  ;  but  the  privi 
lege  was  kept,  whilst  the  means  of  obtaining  it  were 
changed. 

The  foundations  of  these  families  lie  deep  in  Nor 
wegian  exploits  by  sea,  and  Saxon  sturdiness  on 
land.  All  nobility  in  its  beginnings  was  somebody's 
natural  superiority.  The  things  these  English  have 
done  were  not  done  without  peril  of  life,  nor  with 
out  wisdom  and  conduct ;  and  the  first  hands,  it  may 
130 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

be  presumed,  were  often  challenged  to  show  their 
right  to  their  honors,  or  yield  them  to  better  men. 
"  He  that  will  be  a  head,  let  him  be  a  bridge,"  said 
the  Welsh  chief  Benegridran,  when  he  carried  all  his 
men  over  the  river  on  his  back.  "  He  shall  have 
the  book,"  said  the  mother  of  Alfred,  "who  can 
read  it ; "  and  Alfred  won  it  by  that  title :  and  I 
make  no  doubt  that  feudal  tenure  was  no  sine 
cure,  but  baron,  knight,  and  tenant  often  had  their 
memories  refreshed,  in  regard  to  the  service  by 
which  they  held  their  lands.  The  De  Veres,  Bohuns, 
Mowbrays,  and  Plantagenets  were  not  addicted 
to  contemplation.  The  Middle  Age  adorned  itself 
with  proofs  of  manhood  and  devotion.  Of  Richard 
Beauchamp,  Earl  of  Warwick,  the  Emperor  told 
Henry  V.  that  no  Christian  king  had  such  another 
knight  for  wisdom,  nurture,  and  manhood,  and 
caused  him  to  be  named,  "  Father  of  curtesie." 
"  Our  success  in  France,"  says  the  historian,  "lived 
and  died  with  him."  * 

The  war-lord  earned  his  honors,  and  no  donation 
of  land  was  large,  as  long  as  it  brought  the  duty  of 
protecting  it,  hour  by  hour,  against  a  terrible  enemy. 
In  France  and  in  England,  the  nobles  were,  down 
to  a  late  day, born  and  bred  to  war:  and  the  duel, 
which  in  peace  still  held  them  to  the  risks  of  war, 
diminished  the  envy  that,  in  trading  and  studious 
nations,  would  else  have  pried  into  their  title.  They 
were  looked  on  as  men  who  played  high  for  a  great 
stake. 

Great  estates  are  not  sinecures,  if  they  are  to  be 
kept  great.  A  creative  economy  is  the  fuel  of  mag 
nificence.  In  the  same  line  of  Warwick,  the  suc 
cessor  next  but  one  to  Beauchamp,  was  the  stout 
earl  of  Henry  VI.  and  Edward  IV.  Few  esteemed 

131 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

themselves  in  the  mode,  whose  heads  were  not 
adorned  with  the  black  ragged  staff,  his  badge.  At 
his  house  in  London,  six  oxen  were  daily  eaten  at 
a  breakfast ;  and  every  tavern  was  full  of  his  meat ; 
and  who  had  any  acquaintance  in  his  family,  should 
have  as  much  boiled  and  roast  as  he  could  carry  on 
a  long  dagger. 

The  new  age  brings  new  qualities  into  request, 
the  virtues  of  pirates  gave  way  to  those  of  planters, 
merchants,  senators,  and  scholars.  Comity,  social 
talent,  and  fine  manners,  no  doubt,  have  had  their 
part  also.  I  have  met  somewhere  with  a  historiette, 
which,  whether  more  or  less  true  in  its  particulars, 
carries  a  general  truth.  "How  came  the  Duke  of 
Bedford  by  his  great  landed  estates?  His  ancestor 
having  travelled  on  the  continent,  a  lively,  pleasant 
man,  became  the  companion  of  a  foreign  prince 
wrecked  on  the  Dorsetshire  coast,  where  Mr. 
Russell  lived.  The  prince  recommended  him  to 
Henry  VIII.,  who,  liking  his  company,  gave  him  a 
large  share  of  the  plundered  church  lands." 

The  pretence  is  that  the  noble  is  of  unbroken 
descent  from  the  Norman,  and  has  never  worked 
for  eight  hundred  years.  But  the  fact  is  otherwise. 
Where  is  Bohun  ?  where  is  De  Vere  ?  The  lawyer, 
the  farmer,  the  silkmercer  lies  perdu  under  the 
coronet,  and  winks  to  the  antiquary  to  say  nothing ; 
especially  skilful  lawyers,  nobody's  sons,  who  did 
some  piece  of  work  at  a  nice  moment  for  govern 
ment,  and  were  rewarded  with  ermine. 

The  national  tastes  of  the  English  do  not  lead 
them  to  the  life  of  the  courtier,  but  to  secure  the 
comfort  and  independence  of  their  homes.  The 
aristocracy  are  marked  by  their  predilection  for 
country-life.  They  are  called  the  county-families. 
132 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

They  have  often  no  residence  in  London,  and  only 
go  thither  a  short  time,  during  the  season,  to  see 
the  opera ;  but  they  concentrate  the  love  and  labor 
of  many  generations  on  the  building,  planting,  and 
decoration  of  their  homesteads.  Some  of  them  are 
too  old  and  too  proud  to  wear  titles,  or,  as  Sheridan 
said  of  Coke,  'disdain  to  hide  their  head  in  a  coro 
net";  and  some  curious  examples  are  cited  to  show 
the  stability  of  English  families.  Their  proverb  is 
that  fifty  miles  from  London,  a  family  will  last  a 
hundred  years ;  at  a  hundred  miles,  two  hundred 
years ;  and  so  on ;  but  I  doubt  that  steam,  the 
enemy  of  time,  as  well  as  of  space,  will  disturb  these 
ancient  rules.  Sir  Henry  Wotton  says  of  the  first 
Duke  of  Buckingham,  "  He  was  born  at  Brookeby 
in  Leicestershire,  where  his  ancestors  had  chiefly 
continued  about  the  space  of  four  hundred  years, 
rather  without  obscurity,  than  with  any  great 
lustre."2  Wraxall  says  that,in  1781,  Lord  Surrey, 
afterwards  Duke  of  Norfolk,  told  him  that  when 
the  year  1783  should  arrive,  he  meant  to  give  a 
grand  festival  to  all  the  descendants  of  the  body  of 
Jockey  of  Norfolk,  to  mark  the  day  when  the  duke 
dom  should  have  remained  three  hundred  years 
in  their  house,  since  its  creation  by  Richard  III. 
Pepys  tells  us,  in  writing  of  an  Earl  Oxford,  in 
1666,  that  the  honor  had  now  remained  in  that 
name  and  blood  six  hundred  years. 

This  long  descent  of  families  and  this  cleaving 
through  ages  to  the  same  spot  of  ground  captivates 
the  imagination.  It  has  too  a  connection  with  the 
names  of  the  towns  and  districts  of  the  country. 

The  names  are  excellent, — an  atmosphere  of 
legendary  melody  spread  over  the  land.  Older 
than  all  epics  and  histories,  which  clothe  a  nation, 

133 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

this  undershirt  sits  close  to  the  body.  What  history 
too,  and  what  stores  of  primitive  and  savage  obser 
vation,  it  infolds  !  Cambridge  is  the  bridge  of  the 
Cam ;  Sheffield  the  field  of  the  river  Sheaf;  Lei 
cester  the  castra  or  camp  of  the  Lear  or  Leir  (now 
Soar) ;  Rochdale,  of  the  Roch  ;  Exeter  or  Excester, 
the  castra  of  the  Ex  ;  Exmouth,  Dartmouth,  Sid- 
mouth,  Teignmouth,  the  mouths  of  the  Ex,  Dart, 
Sid,  and  Teign  rivers.  Waltham  is  strong  town ; 
Radcliffe  is  red  cliff;  and  so  on  : — a  sincerity  and 
use  in  naming  very  striking  to  an  American,  whose 
country  is  whitewashed  all  over  by  unmeaning 
names,  the  cast-off  clothes  of  the  country  from 
which  its  emigrants  came ;  or,  named  at  a  pinch 
from  a  psalm-tune.  But  the  English  are  those 
"  barbarians "  of  Jamblichus,  who  "  are  stable  in 
their  manners,  and  firmly  continue  to  employ  the 
same  words,  which  also  are  dear  to  the  gods." 

'Tis  an  old  sneer,  that  the  Irish  peerage  drew 
their  names  from  playbooks.  The  English  lords  do 
not  call  their  lands  after  their  own  names,  but  call 
themselves  after  their  lands,  as  if  the  man  repre 
sented  the  country  that  bred  him  ;  and  they  rightly 
wear  the  token  of  the  glebe  that  gave  them  birth ; 
suggesting  that  the  tie  is  not  cut,  but  that  there  in 
London, — the  crags  of  Argyle,  the  kail  of  Corn 
wall,  the  downs  of  Devon,  the  iron  of  Wales,  the 
clays  of  Stafford,  are  neither  forgetting  nor  forgot 
ten,  but  know  the  man  who  was  born  by  them, 
and  who,  like  the  long  line  of  his  fathers,  has  car 
ried  that  crag,  that  shore,  dale,  fen,  or  woodland, 
in  his  blood  and  manners.  It  has,  too,  the  advan 
tage  of  suggesting  responsibleness.  A  susceptible 
man  could  not  wear  a  name  which  represented 
in  a  strict  sense  a  city  or  a  county  of  England, 
134 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

without  hearing  in  it  a  challenge  to  duty  and 
honor. 

The  predilection  of  the  patricians  for  residence 
in  the  country,  combined  with  the  degree  of  liberty 
possessed  by  the  peasant,  makes  the  safety  of  the 
English  hall.  Mirabeau  wrote  prophetically  from 
England,  in  1784,  "If  revolution  break  out  in 
France,  I  tremble  for  the  aristocracy :  their  cha 
teaux  will  be  reduced  to  ashes,  and  their  blood 
spilt  in  torrents.  The  English  tenant  would  defend 
his  lord  to  the  last  extremity."  The  English  go  to 
their  estates  for  grandeur.  The  French  live  at 
court,  and  exile  themselves  to  their  estates  for 
economy.  As  they  do  not  mean  to  live  with  their 
tenants,  they  do  not  conciliate  them,  but  wring 
from  them  the  last  sous.  Evelyn  writes  from  Blois, 
in  1644,  "The  wolves  are  here  in  such  numbers, 
that  they  often  come  and  take  children  out  of  the 
streets  :  yet  will  not  the  Duke,  who  is  sovereign 
here,  permit  them  to  be  destroyed." 

In  evidence  of  the  wealth  amassed  by  ancient 
families,  the  traveller  is  shown  the  palaces  in 
Piccadilly,  Burlington  House,  Devonshire  House, 
Lansdowne  House  in  Berkshire  Square,  and,  lower 
down  in  the  city,  a  few  noble  houses  which  still 
withstand  in  all  their  amplitude  the  encroachment 
of  streets.  The  Duke  of  Bedford  includes  or  in 
cluded  a  mile  square  in  the  heart  of  London,  where 
the  British  Museum,  once  Montague  House,  now 
stands,  and  the  land  occupied  by  Woburn  Square, 
Bedford  Square,  Russell  Square.  The  Marquis  of 
Westminster  built  within  a  few  years  the  series  of 
squares  called  Belgravia.  Stafford  House  is  the 
noblest  palace  in  London.  Northumberland  House 
holds  its  place  by  Charing  Gross.  Chesterfield 

135 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

House  remains  in  Audley  Street.  Sion  House  and 
Holland  House  are  in  the  suburbs.  But  most  of 
the  historical  houses  are  masked  or  lost  in  the 
modern  uses  to  which  trade  or  charity  has  con 
verted  them.  A  multitude  of  town  palaces  contain 
inestimable  galleries  of  art. 

In  the  country,  the  size  of  private  estates  is  more 
impressive.  From  Barnard  Castle  I  rode  on  the 
highway  twenty-three  miles  from  High  Force,  a 
fall  of  the  Tees,  towards  Darlington,  past  Raby 
Castle,  through  the  estate  of  the  Duke  of  Cleveland. 
The  Marquis  of  Breadalbane  rides  out  of  his  house 
a  hundred  miles  in  a  straight  line  to  the  sea,  on  his 
own  property.  The  Duke  of  Sutherland  owns  the 
county  of  Sutherland,  stretching  across  Scotland 
from  sea  to  sea.  The  Duke  of  Devonshire,  besides 
his  other  estates,  owns  96,000  acres  in  the  county 
of  Derby.  The  Duke  of  Richmond  has  40, 000  acres 
at  Goodwood,  and  300,000  at  Gordon  Castle.  The 
Duke  of  Norfolk's  park  in  Sussex  is  fifteen  miles 
in  circuit.  An  agriculturist  bought  lately  the  island 
of  Lewes,  in  Hebrides,  containing  500,000  acres. 
The  possessions  of  the  Earl  of  Lonsdale  gave  him 
eight  seats  in  Parliament.  This  is  the  Heptarchy 
again  :  and  before  the  Reform  of  1832,  one  hundred 
and  fifty-four  persons  sent  three  hundred  and  seven 
members  to  Parliament.  The  borough-mongers 
governed  England. 

These  large  domains  are  growing  larger.  The 
great  estates  are  absorbing  the  small  freeholds.  In 
1786,  the  soil  of  England  was  owned  by  250,000 
corporations  and  proprietors ;  and,  in  1822,  by 
32,000.  These  broad  estates  find  room  in  this  nar 
row  island.  All  over  England,  scattered  at  short 
intervals  among  ship-yards,  mills,  mines,  and  forges, 
136 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

are  the  paradises  of  the  nobles,  where  the  livelong 
repose  and  refinement  are  heightened  by  the  con 
trast  with  the  roar  of  industry  and  necessity,  out 
of  which  you  have  stepped  aside. 

I  was  surprised  to  observe  the  very  small  attend 
ance  usually  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Out  of  573 
peers,  on  ordinary  days,  only  twenty  or  thirty. 
Where  are  they  ?  I  asked.  "  At  home  on  their 
estates,  devoured  by  ennui,  or  in  the  Alps,  or  up  the 
Rhine,  in  the  Harz  Mountains,  or  in  Egypt,  or  in 
India,  on  the  Ghauts."  But,  with  such  interests  at 
stake,  how  can  these  men  afford  to  neglect  them  ? 
"  Oh,"  replied  my  friend,  '  why  should  they  work 
for  themselves,  when  every  man  in  England  works 
for  them,  and  will  suffer  before  they  come  to  harm  ?  " 
The  hardest  radical  instantly  uncovers,  and  changes 
his  tone  to  a  lord.  It  was  remarked,  on  the  10th 
April,  1848  (the  day  of  the  Chartist  demonstration), 
that  the  upper  classes  were,  for  the  first  time,  ac 
tively  interesting  themselves  in  their  own  defence, 
and  men  of  rank  were  sworn  special  constables, 
with  the  rest.  "  Besides,  why  need  they  sit  out  the 
debate  ?  Has  not  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  at  this 
moment,  their  proxies, — the  proxies  of  fifty  peers 
in  his  pocket,  to  vote  for  them,  if  there  be  an 
emergency  ?  " 

It  is  however  true,  that  the  existence  of  the  House 
of  Peers  as  a  branch  of  the  government  entitlesthem 
to  fill  half  the  Cabinet ;  and  their  weight  of  property 
and  station  gives  them  a  virtual  nomination  of  the 
other  half;  whilst  they  have  their  share  in  the 
subordinate  offices,  as  a  school  of  training.  This 
monopoly  of  political  power  has  given  them  their 
intellectual  and  social  eminence  in  Europe.  A  few 

137 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

law-lords  and  a  few  political  lords  take  the  brunt  of 
public  business.  In  the  army,  the  nobility  fill  a  large 
part  of  the  high  commissions,  and  give  to  these  a 
tone  of  expense  and  splendor,  and  also  of  exclusive- 
ness.  They  have  borne  their  full  share  of  duty  and 
danger  in  this  service ;  and  there  are  few  noble 
families  which  have  not  paid  in  some  of  their 
members,  the  debt  of  life  or  limb,  in  the  sacrifices 
of  the  Russian  war.  For  the  rest,  the  nobility  have 
the  lead  in  matters  of  state,  and  of  expense ;  in 
questions  of  taste,  in  social  usages,  in  convivial 
and  domestic  hospitalities.  In  general,  all  that  is 
required  of  them  is  to  sit  securely,  to  preside  at 
public  meetings,  to  countenance  charities,  and  to 
give  the  example  of  that  decorum  so  dear  to  the 
British  heart. 

If  one  asks,  in  the  critical  spirit  of  the  day,  what 
service  this  class  have  rendered  ? — uses  appear,  or 
they  would  have  perished  long  ago.  Some  of  these 
are  easily  enumerated,  others  more  subtle  make  a 
part  of  unconscious  history.  Their  institution  is  one 
step  in  the  progress  of  society.  For  a  race  yields  a 
nobility  in  some  form,  however  we  name  the  lords, 
as  surely  as  it  yields  women. 

The  English  nobles  are  high-spirited,  active,  edu 
cated  men,  bornto  wealth  and  power,  who  have  run 
through  every  country,  and  keptjin  every  country 
the  best  company,  have  seen  every  secret  of  art  and 
nature,  and,  when  men  of  any  ability  or  ambition, 
have  been  consulted  in  the  conduct  of  every  impor 
tant  action.  You  cannot  wield  great  agencies  with 
out  lending  yourself  to  them,  and,  when  it  happens 
that  the  spirit  of  the  earl  meets  his  rank  and  duties, 
we  have  the  best  examples  of  behavior.  Power 
of  any  kind  readily  appears  in  the  manners ;  and 
138 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

beneficent  power,  le  talent  de  bien  fairs,  gives  a 
majesty  which  cannot  be  concealed  or  resisted. 

These  people  seem  to  gain  as  much  as  they  lose 
by  their  position.  They  survey  society  as  from  the 
top  of  St.  Paul's,  and,  if  they  never  hear  plain  truth 
from  men,  they  see  the  best  of  everything,  in  every 
kind,  and  they  see  things  so  grouped  and  amassed 
as  to  infer  easily  the  sum  and  genius,  instead  of 
tedious  particularities.  Their  good  behavior  de 
serves  all  its  fame,  and  they  have  that  simpli 
city  and  that  air  of  repose,  which  are  the  finest 
ornament  of  greatness. 

The  upper  classes  have  only  birth,  say  the  people 
here,  and  not  thoughts.  Yes,  but  they  have  man 
ners,  and  'tis  wonderful  how  much  talent  runs 
into  manners : — nowhere  and  never  so  much  as  in 
England.  They  have  the  sense  of  superiority,  the 
absence  of  all  the  ambitious  effort  which  disgusts 
in  the  aspiring  classes,  a  pure  tone  of  thought  and 
feeling,  and  the  power  to  command,  among  their 
other  luxuries,  the  presence  of  the  most  accom 
plished  men  in  their  festive  meetings. 

Loyalty  is  in  the  English  a  sub-religion.  They 
wear  the  laws  as  ornaments,  and  walk  by  their 
faith  in  their  painted  May-Fair,  as  if  among  the 
forms  of  gods.  The  economist  of  1855  who  asks, 
of  what  use  are  the  lords?  may  learn  of  Franklin 
to  ask,  of  what  use  is  a  baby  ?  They  have  been  a 
social  church  proper  to  inspire  sentiments  mutually 
honoring  the  lover  and  the  loved.  Politeness  is  the 
ritual  of  society,  as  prayers  are  of  the  church ;  a 
school  of  manners,  and  a  gentle  blessing  to  the  age 
in  which  it  grew.  'Tis  a  romance  adorning  English 
life  with  a  larger  horizon  ;  a  midway  heaven,  ful 
filling  to  their  sense  their  fairy  tales  and  poetry. 

139 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

This,  just  as  far  as  the  breeding  of  the  nobleman 
really  made  him  brave,  handsome,  accomplished, 
and  great-hearted. 

On  general  grounds,  whatever  tends  to  form  man 
ners,  or  to  finish  men,  has  a  great  value.  Every  one 
who  has  tasted  the  delight  of  friendship,  will  respect 
every  social  guard  which  our  manners  can  estab 
lish,  tending  to  secure  from  the  intrusion  of  frivolous 
and  distasteful  people.  The  jealousy  of  every  class 
to  guard  itself,  is  a  testimony  to  the  reality  they 
have  found  in  life.  When  a  man  once  knows  that 
he  has  done  justice  to  himself,  let  him  dismiss  all 
terrors  of  aristocracy  as  superstitions,  so  far  as  he 
is  concerned.  He  who  keeps  the  door  of  a  mine, 
whether  of  cobalt,  or  mercury,  or  nickel,  or  plum 
bago,  securely  knows  that  the  world  cannot  do 
without  him.  Everybody  who  is  real  is  open  and 
ready  for  that  which  is  also  real. 

Besides,  these  are  they  who  make  England  that 
strong-box  and  museum  it  is  ;  who  gather  and  pro 
tect  works  of  art,  dragged  from  amidst  burning  cities 
and  revolutionary  countries,  and  brought  hither  out 
of  all  the  world.  I  look  with  respect  at  houses  six, 
seven,  eight  hundred,  or,  like  Warwick  Castle,  nine 
hundred  years  old.  I  pardoned  high  park-fences, 
when  I  saw  that,  besides  does  and  pheasants,  these 
have  preserved  Arundel  marbles,  Townley  galleries, 
Howard  and  Spenserian  libraries,  Warwick  and 
Portland  vases,  Saxon  manuscripts,  monastic  archi 
tectures,  millennial  trees,  and  breeds  of  cattle  else 
where  extinct.  In  these  manors,  after  the  frenzy  of 
war  and  destruction  subsides  a  little,  the  antiquary 
finds  the  frailest  Roman  jar,  or  crumbling  Egyptian 
mummy-case,  without  so  much  as  a  new  layer  of 
dust,  keeping  the  series  of  history  unbroken,  and 
140 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

waiting  for  its  interpreter,  who  is  sure  to  arrive. 
These  lords  are  the  treasurers  and  librarians  of 
mankind,  engaged  by  their  pride  and  wealth  to  this 
function. 

Yet  there  were  other  works  for  British  dukes 
to  do.  George  Loudon,  Quintinye,  Evelyn,  had 
taught  them  to  make  gardens.  Arthur  Young, 
Bakewell,  and  Mechi  have  made  them  agricultural. 
Scotland  was  a  camp  until  the  day  of  Culloden. 
The  Dukes  of  Athol,  Sutherland,  Buccleugh,  and 
the  Marquis  of  Breadalbane  have  introduced  the 
rape-culture,  the  sheep-farm,  wheat,  drainage,  the 
plantation  of  forests,  the  artificial  replenishment 
of  lakes  and  ponds  with  fish,  the  renting  of  game- 
preserves.  Against  the  cry  of  the  old  tenantry,  and 
the  sympathetic  cry  of  the  English  press,  they  have 
rooted  out  and  planted  anew,  and  now  six  millions 
of  people  live,  and  live  better,  on  the  same  land  that 
fed  three  millions. 

The  English  barons,  in  every  period,  have  been 
brave  and  great,  after  the  estimate  and  opinion  of 
their  times.  The  grand  old  halls  scattered  up  and 
down  in  England  are  dumb  vouchers  to  the  state 
and  broad  hospitality  of  their  ancient  lords.  Shak- 
speare's  portraits  of  good  duke  Humphrey,  of  War 
wick,  of  Northumberland,  of  Talbot,  were  drawn 
in  strict  consonance  with  the  traditions.  A  sketch 
of  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  from  the  pen  of  Queen 
Elizabeth's  Archbishop  Parker  ; 3  Lord  Herbert  of 
Gherbury's  autobiography ;  the  letters  and  essays 
of  Sir  Philip  Sidney  ;  the  anecdotes  preserved  by 
the  antiquaries  Fuller  and  Collins;  some  glimpses 
at  the  interiors  of  noble  houses,  which  we  owe  to 
Pepys  and  Evelyn ;  the  details  which  Ben  Jon- 
son's  masques  (performed  at  Kenilworth,  Althorpe, 

141 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

Belvoir,  and  other  noble  houses)  record  or  suggest; 
down  to  Aubrey's  passages  of  the  life  of  Hobbes  in 
the  house  of  the  Earl  of  Devon,  are  favorable  pic 
tures  of  a  romantic  style  of  manners.  Penshurst  still 
shines  for  us,  and  its  Christmas  revels,  "  where  logs 
not  burn, but  men."  At  Wilton  House  the  "Arcadia" 
was  written,  amidst  conversations  with  Fulke  Gre- 
ville,  Lord  Brooke,  a  man  of  no  vulgar  mind,  as 
his  own  poems  declare  him.  I  must  hold  Ludlow 
Castle  an  honest  house,  for  which  Milton's  "  Comus  " 
was  written,  and  the  company  nobly  bred  which 
performed  it  with  knowledge  and  sympathy.  In 
the  roll  of  nobles  are  found  poets,  philosophers, 
chemists,  astronomers,  also  men  of  solid  virtues 
and  of  lofty  sentiments;  often  they  have  been  the 
friends  and  patrons  of  genius  and  learning,  and 
especially  of  the  fine  arts ;  and  at  this  moment 
almost  every  great  house  has  its  sumptuous  picture- 
gallery. 

Of  course,  there  is  another  side  to  this  gorgeous 
show.  Every  victory  was  the  defeat  of  a  party  only 
less  worthy.  Castles  are  proud  things,  but  'tis  safest 
to  be  outside  of  them.  War  is  a  foul  game,  and  yet 
war  is  not  the  worst  part  of  aristocratic  history.  In 
later  times,  when  the  baron,  educated  only  for  war, 
with  his  brains  paralyzed  by  his  stomach,  found 
himself  idle  at  home,  he  grew  fat  and  wanton,  and 
a  sorry  brute.  Grammont,  Pepys,  and  Evelyn  show 
the  kennels  to  which  the  king  and  court  went  in 
quest  of  pleasure.  Prostitutes  taken  from  the  theatres 
were  made  duchesses,  thei  r  bastards  dukes  and  earls. 
"  The  young  men  sat  uppermost,  the  old  serious 
lords  were  out  of  favor."  The  discourse  that  the 
king's  companions  had  with  him  was  "  poor  and 
frothy."  No  man  who  valued  his  head  might  do 
142 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

what  these  pot-companions  familiarly  did  with  the 
king.  In  logical  sequence  of  these  dignified  revels, 
Pepys  can  tell  the  beggarly  shifts  to  which  the  king 
was  reduced,  who  could  not  find  paper  at  his  council 
table,  and  "no  handkerchers"in  his  wardrobe,  "and 
but  three  bands  to  his  neck,"  and  the  linen-draper 
and  the  stationer  were  out  of  pocket,  and  refusing 
to  trust  him,  and  the  baker  will  not  bring  bread  any 
longer.  Meantime  the  English  Channel  was  swept 
and  London  threatened  by  the  Dutch  fleet,  manned, 
too,  by  English  sailors,  who,  having  been  cheated 
of  their  pay  for  years  by  the  king,  enlisted  with  the 
enemy. 

The  Selwyn  correspondence,  in  the  reign  of 
George  III.,  discloses  a  rottenness  in  the  aristocracy 
which  threatened  to  decompose  the  state.  The 
sycophancy  and  sale  of  votes  and  honor  for  place 
and  title ;  lewdness,  gaming,  smuggling,  bribery, 
and  cheating  ;  the  sneer  at  the  childish  indiscretion 
of  quarrelling  with  ten  thousand  a  year ;  the  want 
of  ideas  ;  the  splendor  of  the  titles,  and  the  apathy 
of  the  nation,  are  instructive,  and  make  the  reader 
pause  and  explore  the  firm  bounds  which  confined 
these  vices  to  a  handful  of  rich  men.  In  the  reign 
of  the  Fourth  George  things  do  not  seem  to  have 
mended,  and  the  rotten  debauchee  let  down  from 
a  window  by  an  inclined  plane  into  his  coach  to 
take  the  air,  was  a  scandal  to  Europe  which  the  ill 
fame  of  his  queen  and  of  his  family  did  nothing 
to  retrieve. 

Under  the  present  reign,  the  perfect  decorum  of 
the  Court  is  thought  to  have  put  a  check  on  the 
gross  vices  of  the  aristocracy  ;  yet  gaming,  racing, 
drinking,  and  mistresses  bring  them  down,  and  the 
democrat  can  still  gather  scandals  if  he  will.  Dismal 

143 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

anecdotes  abound,  verifying  the  gossip  of  the  last 
generation  of  dukes  served  by  bailiffs,  with  all  their 
plate  in  pawn  ;  of  great  lords  living  by  the  showing 
of  their  nouses ;  and  of  an  old  man  wheeled  in  his 
chair  from  room  to  room,  whilst  his  chambers  are 
exhibited  to  the  visitor  for  money;  of  ruined  dukes 
and  earls  living  in  exile  for  debt.  The  historic  names 
of  the  Buckinghams,  Beauforts,  Marlboroughs,  and 
Hertfords  have  gained  no  new  lustre,  and  now  and 
then  darker  scandals  break  out,  ominous  as  the  new 
chapters  added  under  the  Orleans  dynasty  to  the 
''Causes  Celebres"  in  France.  Even  peers  who  are 
men  of  worth  and  public  spirit  are  overtaken  and 
embarrassed  by  their  vast  expense.  The  respectable 
Duke  of  Devonshire,  willing  to  be  the  Maecenas  and 
Lucullus  of  his  island,  is  reported  to  have  said  that 
he  cannot  live  at  Ghatsworth  but  one  month  in  the 
year.  Their  many  houses  eat  them  up.  They  can 
not  sell  them,  because  they  are  entailed.  They  will 
not  let  them  for  pride's  sake,  but  keep  them  empty, 
aired,  and  the  grounds  mown  and  dressed,  at  a  cost 
of  four  or  five  thousand  pounds  a  year.  The  spend 
ing  is  for  a  great  part  in  servants,  in  many  houses 
exceeding  a  hundred. 

Most  of  them  are  only  chargeable  with  idleness, 
which,  because  it  squanders  such  vast  power  of 
benefit,  has  the  mischief  of  crime.  "  They  might  be 
little  Providences  on  earth,"  said  my  friend,  "  and 
they  are,  for  the  most  part,  jockeys  and  fops." 
Campbell  says,  "  Acquaintance  with  the  nobility, 
I  could  never  keep  up.  It  requires  a  life  of  idleness, 
dressing,  and  attendance  on  their  parties."  I  sup 
pose,  too,  that  a  feeling  of  self-respect  is  driving 
cultivated  men  out  of  this  society,  as  if  the  noble 
were  slow  to  receive  the  lessons  of  the  times,  and 
144 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

had  not  learned  to  disguise  his  pride  of  place.  A 
man  of  wit,  who  is  also  one  of  the  celebrities  of 
wealth  and  fashion,  confessed  to  his  friend  that  he 
could  not  enter  their  houses  without  being  made  to 
feel  that  they  were  great  lords,  and  he  a  low  plebeian. 
With  the  tribe  of  artistes,  including  the  musical  tribe, 
the  patrician  morgue  keeps  no  terms,  but  excludes 
them.  When  Julia  Grisi  and  Mario  sang  at  the 
houses  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  other  gran 
dees,  a  cord  was  stretched  between  the  singer  and 
the  company. 

When  every  noble  was  a  soldier,  they  were  care 
fully  bred  to  great  personal  prowess.  The  education 
of  a  soldier  is  a  simpler  affair  than  that  of  an  earl  in 
the  nineteenth  century.  And  this  was  very  seriously 
pursued ;  they  were  expert  in  every  species  of  equi 
tation,  to  the  most  dangerous  practices,  and  this 
down  to  the  accession  of  William  of  Orange.  But 
graver  men  appear  to  have  trained  their  sons  for 
civil  affairs.  Elizabeth  extended  her  thought  to  the 
future  ;  and  Sir  Philip  Sidney  in  his  letter  to  his 
brother,  and  Milton  and  Evelyn,  gave  plain  and 
hearty  counsel.  Already,  too,  the  English  noble 
and  squire  were  preparing  for  the  career  of  the 
country  gentleman,  and  his  peaceable  expense. 
They  went  from  city  to  city,  learning  receipts  to 
make  perfumes,  sweet  powders,  pomanders,  anti 
dotes,  gathering  seeds,  gems,  coins,  and  divers 
curiosities,  preparing  for  a  private  life  thereafter, 
in  which  they  should  take  pleasure  in  these 
recreations. 

All  advantages  given  to  absolve  the  young  pat 
rician  from  intellectual  labor  are  of  course  mis 
taken.  "  In  the  university,  noblemen  are  exempted 
from  the  public  exercises  for  the  degree,  &c.,  by 
k  145 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

which  they  attain  a  degree  called  honorary.  At  the 
same  time,  the  fees  they  have  to  pay  for  matricula 
tion,  and  on  all  other  occasions,  are  much  higher."  4 
Fuller  records  "the  observation  of  foreigners,  that 
Englishmen,  by  making  their  children  gentlemen, 
before  they  are  men,  cause  they  are  so  seldom  wise 
men."  This  cockering  justifies  Dr.  Johnson's  bitter 
apology  for  primogeniture,  "  that  it  makes  but  one 
fool  in  a  family." 

The  revolution  in  society  has  reached  this  class. 
The  great  powers  of  industrial  art  have  no  ex 
clusion  of  name  or  blood.  The  tools  of  our  time, 
namely,  steam,  ships,  printing,  money,  and  popular 
education,  belong  to  those  who  can  handle  them : 
and  their  effect  has  been  that  advantages  once  con 
fined  to»men  of  family  are  now  open  to  the  whole 
middle  class.  The  road  that  grandeur  levels  for 
his  coach,  toil  can  travel  in  his  cart. 

This  is  more  manifest  every  day,  but  I  think  it 
is  true  throughout  English  history.  English  history, 
wisely  read,  is  the  vindication  of  the  brain  of  that 
people.  Here,  at  last,  were  climate  and  condition 
friendly  to  the  working  faculty.  Who  now  will 
work  and  dare,  shall  rule.  This  is  the  charter,  or 
the  chartism,  which  fogs,  and  seas,  and  rains  pro 
claimed — that  intellect  and  personal  force  should 
make  the  law ;  that  industry  and  administrative 
talent  should  administer;  that  work  should  wear 
the  crown.  I  know  that  not  this,  but  something 
else,  is  pretended.  The  fiction  with  which  the  noble 
and  the  bystander  equally  please  themselves  is  that 
the  former  is  of  unbroken  descent  from  the  Nor 
man,  and  so  has  never  worked  for  eight  hundred 
years.  All  the  families  are  new,  but  the  name  is 
old,  and  they  have  made  a  covenant  with  their 
146 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

memories  not  to  disturb  it.  But  the  analysis  of 
the  peerage  and  gentry  shows  the  rapid  decay  and 
extinction  of  old  families,  the  continual  recruiting 
of  these  from  new  blood.  The  doors,  though  osten 
tatiously  guarded,  are  really  open,  and  hence  the 
power  of  the  bribe.  All  the  barriers  to  rank  only 
whet  the  thirst,  and  enhance  the  prize.  "  Now," 
said  Nelson,  when  clearing  for  battle,  "a  peerage, 
or  Westminster  Abbey!"  "I  have  no  illusion  left," 
said  Sydney  Smith,  '  but  the  Archbishop  of  Can 
terbury."  "The  lawyers,"  said  Burke,  "are  only 
birds  of  passage  in  this  House  of  Commons,"  and 
then  added,  with  a  new  figure,  "they  have  their 
best  bower  anchor  in  the  House  of  Lords." 

Another  stride  that  has  been  taken  appears  in 
the  perishing  of  heraldry.  Whilst  the  privileges  of 
nobility  are  passing  to  the  middle  class,  the  badge 
is  discredited,  and  the  titles  of  lordship  are  getting 
musty  and  cumbersome.  I  wonder  that  sensible 
men  have  not  been  already  impatient  of  them.  They 
belong,  with  wigs,  powder,  and  scarlet  coats,  to  an 
earlier  age,  and  may  be  advantageously  consigned, 
with  paint  and  tattoo,  to  the  dignitaries  of  Australia 
and  Polynesia. 

A  multitude  of  English,  educated  at  the  univer 
sities,  bred  into  their  society  with  manners,  ability, 
and  the  gifts  of  fortune,  are  every  day  confronting 
the  peers  on  a  footing  of  equality,  and  outstripping 
them,  as  often,  in  the  race  of  honor  and  influence. 
That  cultivated  class  is  large  and  ever  enlarging. 
It  is  computed  that,  with  titles  and  without,  there 
are  seventy  thousand  of  these  people  coming  and 
going  in  London,  who  make  up  what  is  called 
high  society.  They  cannot  shut  their  eyes  to  the 
fact  that  an  untitled  nobility  possess  all  the  power 

147 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

without  the  inconveniences  that  belong  to  rank, 
and  the  rich  Englishman  goes  over  the  world 
at  the  present  day,  drawing  more  than  all  the 
advantages  which  the  strongest  of  his  kings  could 
command. 

NOTES 

1  Fullers  "  Worthies"  ii.  p.  472. 
"  Reliquice  Wottoniance,"  p.  208. 

3  Dibdins  "Literary  Reminiscences"  vol.  1,  xii. 

4  Huber,  "  History  of  English  Universities" 


148 


CHAPTER  XII.  UNIVERSITIES 

OF  British  universities,  Cambridge  has  the 
most  illustrious  names  on  its  list.  At 
the  present  day,  too,  it  has  the  advan 
tage  of  Oxford,  counting  in  its  alumni  a 
greater  number  of  distinguished  scholars.  I  regret 
that  I  had  but  a  single  day  wherein  to  see  King's 
College  Chapel,  the  beautiful  lawns  and  gardens  of 
the  colleges,  and  a  few  of  its  gownsmen. 

But  I  availed  myself  of  some  repeated  invitations 
to  Oxford,  where  I  had  introductions  to  Dr.  Dau- 
beny,  Professor  of  Botany,  and  to  the  Regius  Pro 
fessor  of  Divinity,  as  well  as  to  a  valued  friend,  a 
fellow  of  Oriel,  and  went  thither  on  the  last  day  of 
March,  1848.  I  was  the  guest  of  my  friend  in  Oriel, 
was  housed  close  upon  that  college,  and  I  lived  on 
college  hospitalities. 

My  new  friends  showed  me  their  cloisters,  the 
Bodleian  Library,  the  Randolph  Gallery,  Merton 
Hall,  and  the  rest.  I  saw  several  faithful  high- 
minded  young  men,  some  of  them  in  the  mood  of 
making  sacrifices  for  peace  of  mind, — a  topic,  of 
course,  on  which  I  had  no  counsel  to  offer.  Their 
affectionate  and  gregarious  ways  reminded  me  at 
once  of  the  habits  of  our  Cambridge  men,  though  I 
imputed  to  these  English  an  advantage  in  their 
secure  and  polished  manners.  The  halls  are  rich 
with  oaken  wainscoting  and  ceiling.  The  pictures 
of  the  founders  hang  from  the  walls ;  the  tables, 
glitter  with  plate.  A  youth  came  forward  to  the 
upper  table,  and  pronounced  the  ancient  form  of 
grace  before  meals,  which,  I  suppose,  has  been  in 
use  here  for  ages,  Benedictus  benedicat;  benedicitur, 
benedicatur. 

It  is  a  curious  proof  of  the  English  use  and  wont, 

149 


or  of  their  good  nature,  that  these  young  men  are 
locked  up  every  night  at  nine  o'clock,  and  the  porter 
at  each  hall  is  required  to  give  the  name  of  any  be 
lated  student  who  is  admitted  after  that  hour.  Still 
more  descriptive  is  the  fact  that  out  of  twelve  hun 
dred  young  men,  comprising  the  most  spirited  of  the 
aristocracy,  a  duel  has  never  occurred. 

Oxford  is  old,  even  in  England,  and  conservative. 
Its  foundations  date  from  Alfred,  and  even  from 
Arthur,  if,  as  is  alleged,  the  Pheryllt  of  the  Druids 
had  a  seminary  here.  In  the  reign  of  Edward  I.,  it 
is  pretended,  here  were  thirty  thousand  students  ; 
and  nineteen  most  noble  foundations  were  then 
established.  Chaucer  found  it  as  firm  as  if  it  had 
always  stood ;  and  it  is,  in  British  story,  rich  with 
great  names,  the  school  of  the  island,  and  the  link 
of  England  to  the  learned  of  Europe.  Hither  came 
Erasmus,  with  delight,  in  1497.  Albericus  Gentilis, 
in  1580,  was  relieved  and  maintained  by  the  univer 
sity.  Albert  Alaskie,  a  noble  Polonian,  Prince  of 
Sirad,  who  visited  England  to  admire  the  wisdom  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  was  entertained  with  stage-plays 
in  the  Refectory  of  Christ  Church,  in  1583.  Isaac 
Casaubon,  coming  from  Henri  Quatre  of  France, 
by  invitation  of  James  I.,  was  admitted  to  Christ's 
College,  in  July,  1613.  I  saw  the  Ashmolean  Mu 
seum,  whither  Elias  Ashmole,  in  1682,  sent  twelve 
cart-loads  of  rarities.  Here  indeed  was  the  Olympia 
of  all  Anthony  Wood's  and  Aubrey's  games  and 
heroes,  and  every  inch  of  ground  has  its  lustre.  For 
Wood's  "  Athenaj  Oxonienses,"  or  calendar  of  the 
writers  of  Oxford  for  two  hundred  years,  is  a  lively 
record  of  English  manners  and  merits,  and  as  much  a 
national  monument  as  Purchas's  "  Pilgrims  "  or  I  Ian- 
sard's  "Register."  On  every  side,  Oxford  is  redolent 
150 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

of  age  and  authority.  Its  gates  shut  of  themselves 
against  modern  innovation.  It  is  still  governed  by 
the  statutes  of  Archbishop  Laud.  The  books  in 
Merton  Library  are  still  chained  to  the  wall.  Here, 
on  August  27,  1660,  John  Milton's  "Pro  Populo 
Anglicano  Defensio"and  "Iconoclastes"  were  com 
mitted  to  the  flames.  I  saw  the  school-court  or 
quadrangle,  where,  in  1683,  the  Convocation  caused 
the  "  Leviathan  "  of  Thomas  Hobbes  to  be  publicly 
burnt.  I  do  not  know  whether  this  learned  body 
have  yet  heard  of  the  declaration  of  American 
Independence,  or  whether  the  Ptolemaic  astronomy 
does  not  still  hold  its  ground  against  the  novelties  of 
Copernicus. 

As  many  sons,  almost  so  many  benefactors.  It 
is  usual  for  a  nobleman,  or  indeed  for  almost  every 
wealthy  student,  on  quitting  college,  to  leave  behind 
him  some  article  of  plate ;  and  gifts  of  all  values, 
from  a  hall,  or  a  fellowship,  or  a  library,  down  to  a 
picture  or  a  spoon,  are  continually  accruing,  in  the 
course  of  a  century.  My  friend  Doctor  J.  gave  me 
the  following  anecdote.  In  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence's 
collection  at  London,  were  the  cartoons  of  Raphael 
and  Michel  Angelo.  This  inestimable  prize  was 
offered  to  Oxford  University  for  seven  thousand 
pounds.  The  offer  was  accepted,  and  the  committee 
charged  with  the  affair  had  collected  three  thousand 
pounds,  when  among  other  friends,  they  called  on 
Lord  Eldon.  Instead  of  a  hundred  pounds,  he  sur 
prised  them  by  putting  down  his  name  for  three 
thousand  pounds.  They  told  him,  they  should  now 
very  easily  raise  the  remainder.  "No,"  he  said, 
"  your  men  have  probably  already  contributed  all 
they  can  spare  ;  I  can  as  well  give  the  rest :  "  and 
he  withdrew  his  cheque  for  three  thousand,  and 

151 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

wrote  four  thousand  pounds.  I  saw  the  whole 
collection  in  April,  1848. 

In  the  Bodleian  Library  Dr.  Bandinel  showed 
me  the  manuscript  Plato,  of  the  date  of  A.D.  896, 
brought  by  Dr.  Clarke  from  Egypt ;  a  manuscript 
Virgil,  of  the  same  century  ;  the  first  Bible  printed 
at  Mentz,  (I  believe  in  1450);  and  a  duplicate  of 
the  same,  which  had  been  deficient  in  about  twenty 
leaves  at  the  end.  But,  one  day,  being  in  Venice, 
he  bought  a  room  full  of  books  and  manuscripts,— 
every  scrap  and  fragment, — for  four  thousand  louis 
d'ors,  and  had  the  doors  locked  and  sealed  by  the 
consul.  On  proceeding,  afterwards,  to  examine  his 
purchase,  he  found  the  twenty  deficient  pages  of 
his  Mentz  Bible,  in  perfect  order ;  brought  them 
to  Oxford,  with  the  rest  of  his  purchase,  and  placed 
them  in  the  volume ;  but  has  too  much  awe  for 
the  Providence  that  appears  in  bibliography  also, 
to  suffer  the  reunited  parts  to  be  re-bound.  The 
oldest  building  here  is  two  hundred  years  younger 
than  the  frail  manuscript  brought  by  Dr.  Clarke 
from  Egypt.  No  candle  or  fire  is  ever  lighted  in 
the  Bodleian.  Its  catalogue  is  the  standard  catalogue 
on  the  desk  of  every  library  in  Oxford.  In  ecch 
several  college,  they  underscore  in  red  ink  on  this 
catalogue  the  titles  of  books  contained  in  the  library 
of  that  college, — the  theory  being  that  the  Bodleian 
has  all  books.  This  rich  library  spent  during  the 
last  year  (1847)  for  the  purchase  of  books  £1668. 

The  logical  English  train  a  scholar  as  they  train 
an  engineer.  Oxford  is  a  Greek  factory,  as  Wilton 
mills  weave  carpet,  and  Sheffield  grinds  steel.  They 
know  the  use  of  a  tutor,  as  they  know  the  use  of  a 
horse  ;  and  they  draw  the  greatest  amount  of  bene 
fit  out  of  both.  The  reading  men  are  kept  by  hard 
152 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

walking,  hard  riding,  and  measured  eating  and 
drinking,  at  the  top  of  their  condition,  and  two 
days  before  the  examination,  do  no  work,  but 
lounge,  ride,  or  run,  to  be  fresh  on  the  college 
doomsday.  Seven  years'  residence  is  the  theoretic 
period  for  a  master's  degree.  In  point  of  fact,  it  has 
long  been  three  years'  residence,  and  four  years 
more  of  standing.  This  '  three  years"  is  about 
twenty-one  months  in  all. 

"  The  whole  expense,"  says  Professor  Sewel,  "of 
ordinary  college  tuition  at  Oxford  is  about  sixteen 
guineas  a  year."  But  this  plausible  statement  may 
deceive  a  reader  unacquainted  with  the  fact  that 
the  principal  teaching  relied  on  is  private  tuition. 
And  the  expenses  of  private  tuition  are  reckoned 
at  from  £50  to  £70  a  year,  or  $1000  for  the  whole 
course  of  three  years  and  a  half.  At  Cambridge 
$750  a  year  is  economical,  and  $1500  not  extra 
vagant.2 

The  number  of  students  and  of  residents,  the 
dignity  of  the  authorities,  the  value  of  the  founda 
tions,  the  history  and  the  architecture,  the  known 
sympathy  of  entire  Britain  in  what  is  done  there, 
justify  a  dedication  to  study  in  the  undergraduate, 
such  as  cannot  easily  be  in  America,  where  his 
college  is  half  suspected  by  the  Freshman  to  be 
insignificant  in  the  scale  beside  trade  and  politics. 
Oxford  is  a  little  aristocracy  in  itself,  numerous  and 
dignified  enough  to  rank  with  other  estates  in  the 
realm  ;  and  where  fame  and  secular  promotion  are 
to  be  had  for  study,  and  in  a  direction  which  has 
the  unanimous  respect  of  all  cultivated  nations. 

This  aristocracy,  of  course,  repairs  its  own  losses; 
fills  places,  as  they  fall  vacant,  from  the  body  of 
students.  The  number  of  fellowships  at  Oxford  is 

153 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

540,  averaging  £200  a  year,  with  lodging  and  diet  at 
the  college.  If  a  young  American,  loving  learning, 
and  hindered  by  poverty,  were  offered  a  home,  a 
table,  the  walks,  and  the  library,  in  one  of  these 
academical  palaces,  and  a  thousand  dollars  a  year 
as  long  as  he  chose  to  remain  a  bachelor,  he  would 
dance  for  joy.  Yet  these  young  men  thus  happily 
placed,  and  paid  to  read,  are  impatient  of  their  few 
checks,  and  many  of  them  preparing  to  resign  their 
fellowships.  They  shuddered  at  the  prospect  of 
dying  a  fellow,  and  they  pointed  out  to  me  a  para 
lytic  old  man,  who  was  assisted  into  the  hall.  As 
the  number  of  undergraduates  at  Oxford  is  only 
about  1200  or  1300,  and  many  of  these  are  never 
competitors,  the  chance  of  a  fellowship  is  very  great. 
The  income  of  the  nineteen  colleges  is  conjectured 
at  £150,000  a  year. 

The  effect  of  this  drill  is  the  radical  knowledge 
of  Greek  and  Latin,  and  of  mathematics,  and  the 
solidity  and  taste  of  English  criticism.  Whatever 
luck  there  may  be  in  this  or  that  award,  an  Eton 
captain  can  write  Latin  longs  and  shorts,  can  turn 
the  "  Court-Guide  "  into  hexameters,  and  it  is  certain 
that  a  Senior  Classic  can  quote  correctly  from  the 
"Corpus  Poetarum,"  and  is  critically  learned  in  all 
the  humanities.  Greek  erudition  exists  on  the  Isis 
and  Cam,  whether  the  Maud  man  or  the  Brazen 
Nose  man  be  properly  ranked  or  not;  the  atmo 
sphere  is  loaded  with  Greek  learning ;  the  whole 
river  has  reached  a  certain  height,  and  kills  all  that 
growth  of  weeds  which  this  Castalian  water  kills. 
The  English  nature  takes  culture  kindly.  So  Milton 
thought.  It  refines  the  Norseman.  Access  to  the 
Greek  mind  lifts  his  standard  of  taste.  He  has 
enough  to  think  of,  and,  unless  of  an  impulsive 
'154 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

nature,  is  indisposed  from  writing  or  speaking, 
by  the  fulness  of  his  mind,  and  the  new  severity 
of  his  taste.  The  great  silent  crowd  of  thorough 
bred  Grecians  always  known  to  be  around  him, 
the  English  writer  cannot  ignore.  They  prune  his 
orations,  and  point  his  pen.  Hence,  the  style  and 
tone  of  English  journalism.  The  men  have  learned 
accuracy  and  comprehension,  logic,  and  pace,  or 
speed  of  working.  They  have  bottom,  endurance, 
wind.  When  born  with  good  constitutions,  they 
make  those  eupeptic  studying-mills,  the  cast-iron 
men,  the  dura  ilia,  whose  powers  of  performance 
compare  with  ours,  as  the  steam-hammer  with  the 
music-box; — Cokes,  Mansfields,  Seldens,  and  Bent- 
leys,  and  when  it  happens  that  a  superior  brain 
puts  a  rider  on  this  admirable  horse,  we  obtain 
those  masters  of  the  world  who  combine  the  highest 
energy  in  affairs,  with  a  supreme  culture. 

It  is  contended  by  those  who  have  been  bred  at 
Eton,  Harrow,  Rugby,  and  Westminster,  that  the 
public  sentiment  within  each  of  those  schools  is 
high-toned  and  manly ;  that,  in  their  playgrounds, 
courage  is  universally  admired,  meanness  despised, 
manly  feelings  and  generous  conduct  are  encour 
aged  :  that  an  unwritten  code  of  honor  deals  to  the 
spoiled  child  of  rank,  and  to  the  child  of  upstart 
wealth,  an  even-handed  justice,  purges  their  non 
sense  out  of  both,  and  does  all  that  can  be  done  to 
make  them  gentlemen. 

Again,  at  the  universities,  it  is  urged  that  all 
goes  to  form  what  England  values  as  the  flower  of 
its  national  life, — a  well-educated  gentleman.  The 
German  Huber,  in  describing  to  his  countrymen 
the  attributes  of  an  English  gentleman,  frankly 
admits  that,  "in  Germany,  we  have  nothing  of  the 

155 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

kind.  A  gentleman  must  possess  a  political  character, 
an  independent  and  public  position,  or,  at  least,  the 
right  of  assuming  it.  He  must  have  average  opu 
lence,  either  of  his  own,  or  in  his  family.  He  should 
also  have  bodily  activity  and  strength,  unattainable 
by  our  sedentary  life  in  public  offices.  The  race  of 
English  gentlemen  presents  an  appearance  of  manly 
vigor  and  form,  not  elsewhere  to  be  found  among 
an  equal  number  of  persons.  No  other  nation  pro 
duces  the  stock.  And,  in  England,  it  has  deterio 
rated.  The  university  is  a  decided  presumption  in 
any  man's  favor.  And  so  eminent  are  the  members 
that  a  glance  at  the  calendars  will  show  that  in  all 
the  world  one  cannot  be  in  better  company  than  on 
the  books  of  one  of  the  larger  Oxford  or  Cambridge 
colleges."3 

These  seminaries  are  finishing  schools  for  the 
upper  classes,  and  not  for  the  poor.  The  useful  is 
exploded.  The  definition  of  a  public  school  is  "a 
school  which  excludes  all  that  could  fit  a  man  for 
standing  behind  a  counter."  * 

No  doubt,  the  foundations  have  been  perverted. 
Oxford,  which  equals  in  wealth  several  of  the  smaller 
European  states,  shuts  up  the  lectureships  which 
were  made  "public  for  all  men  thereunto  to  have 
concourse  " ;  mis-spends  the  revenues  bestowed  for 
such  youths  "  as  should  be  most  meet  for  toward- 
ness,  poverty,  and  painfulness";  there  is  gross 
favoritism  ;  many  chairs  and  many  fellowships  are 
made  beds  of  ease ;  and  'tis  likely  that  the  univer 
sity  will  know  how  to  resist  and  make  inoperative 
the  terrors  of  parliamentary  inquiry ;  no  doubt, 
their  learning  is  grown  obsolete  ; — but  Oxford  also 
has  its  merits,  and  I  found  here  also  proof  of  the 
national  fidelity  and  thoroughness.  Such  knowledge 
156 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

as  they  prize  they  possess  and  impart.  Whether  in 
course  or  by  indirection,  whether  by  a  cramming 
tutor  or  by  examiners  with  prizes  and  foundation 
scholarships,  education  according  to  the  English 
notion  of  it  is  arrived  at.  I  looked  over  the  Exami 
nation  Papers  of  the  year  1848,  for  the  various 
scholarships  and  fellowships,  the  Lusby,  the  Hert 
ford,  the  Dean-Ireland,  and  the  University  (copies 
of  which  were  kindly  given  me  by  a  Greek  pro 
fessor),  containing  the  tasks  which  many  competi 
tors  had  victoriously  performed,  and  I  believed 
they  would  prove  too  severe  tests  for  the  candidates 
for  a  Bachelor's  degree  in  Yale  or  Harvard.  And, 
in  general,  here  was  proof  of  a  more  searching  study 
in  the  appointed  directions,  and  the  knowledge 
pretended  to  be  conveyed  was  conveyed.  Oxford 
sends  out  yearly  twenty  or  thirty  very  able  men, 
and  three  or  four  hundred  well-educated  men. 

The  diet  and  rough  exercise  secure  a  certain 
amount  of  old  Norse  power.  A  fop  will  fight,  and, 
in  exigent  circumstances,  will  play  the  manly  part. 
In  seeing  these  youths,  I  believed  I  saw  already  an 
advantage  in  vigor  and  color  and  general  habit,  over 
their  contemporaries  in  American  colleges.  No 
doubt  much  of  the  power  and  brilliancy  of  the 
reading-men  is  merely  constitutional  or  hygienic. 
With  a  hardier  habit  and  resolute  gymnastics,  with 
five  miles  more  walking,  or  five  ounces  less  eating, 
or  with  a  saddle  and  gallop  of  twenty  miles  a  day, 
with  skating  and  rowing-matches,  the  American 
would  arrive  at  as  robust  exegesis  and  cheery  and 
hilarious  tone.  I  should  readily  concede  these 
advantages,  which  it  would  be  easy  to  acquire,  if 
I  did  not  find  also  that  they  read  better  than  we, 
and  write  better. 

157 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

English  wealth,  falling  on  their  school  and  uni 
versity  training,  makes  a  systematic  reading  of  the 
best  authors,  and  to  the  end  of  a  knowledge  how 
the  things  whereof  they  treat  really  stand  :  whilst 
pamphleteer  or  journalist  reading  for  an  argument 
for  a  party,  or  reading  to  write,  or,  at  all  events, 
for  some  by-end  imposed  on  them,  must  read  meanly 
and  fragmentarily.  Charles  I.  said  that  he  under 
stood  English  law  as  well  as  a  gentleman  ought  to 
understand  it. 

Then  they  have  access  to  books ;  the  rich  libraries 
collected  at  every  one  of  many  thousands  of  houses, 
give  an  advantage  not  to  be  attained  by  a  youth 
in  this  country,  when  one  thinks  how  much  more 
and  better  may  be  learned  by  a  scholar  who,  imme 
diately  on  hearing  of  a  book,  can  consult  it,  than 
by  one  who  is  on  the  quest  for  years,  and  reads 
inferior  books  because  he  cannot  find  the  best. 

Again,  the  great  number  of  cultivated  men  keep 
each  other  up  to  a  high  standard.  The  habit  of 
meeting  well-read  and  knowing  men  teaches  the 
art  of  omission  and  selection. 

Universities  are,  of  course,  hostile  to  geniuses, 
which  seeing  and  using  ways  of  their  own,  discredit 
the  routine:  as  churches  and  monasteries  persecute 
youthful  saints.  Yet  we  all  send  our  sons  to  college, 
and,  though  he  be  a  genius,  he  must  take  his  chance. 
The  university  must  be  retrospective.  The  gale 
that  gives  direction  to  the  vanes  on  all  its  towers 
blows  out  of  antiquity.  Oxford  is  a  library,  and  the 
professors  must  be  librarians.  And  I  should  as  soon 
think  of  quarrelling  with  the  janitor  for  not  magni 
fying  his  office  by  hostile  sallies  into  the  street  like 
the  Governor  of  Kertch  or  Kinburn,  as  of  quarrel 
ling  with  the  professors  for  not  admiring  the  young 
158 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

neologists  who  pluck  the  beards  of  Euclid  and 
Aristotle,  or  for  not  attempting  themselves  to  fill 
their  vacant  shelves  as  original  writers. 

It  is  easy  to  carp  at  colleges,  and  the  college,  if 
\ve  will  wait  for  it,  will  have  its  own  turn.  Genius 
exists  there  also,  but  will  not  answer  a  call  of  a 
committee  of  the  House  of  Commons.  It  is  rare, 
precarious,  eccentric,  and  darkling.  England  is  the 
land  of  mixture  and  surprise,  and  when  you  have 
settled  it  that  the  universities  are  moribund,  out 
comes  a  poetic  influence  from  the  heart  of  Oxford, 
to  mould  the  opinions  of  cities,  to  build  their  houses 
as  simply  as  birds  their  nests,  to  give  veracity  to  art, 
and  charm  mankind,  as  an  appeal  to  moral  order 
always  must.  But  besides  this  restorative  genius, 
the  best  poetry  of  England  of  this  age,  in  the  old 
forms,  comes  from  two  graduates  of  Cambridge. 


NOTES 

1  Huber,  it.  p.  304. 

2  Bristed,  " Five  Years  at  an  English  University" 

3  Huber,  "History  of  the  English  Universities."   New 
man's  translation. 

4  See  Bristed,  "  Five  Years  in  an  English  University." 
New  York,  1852. 


159 


CHAPTER  XIII.  RELIGION 

NO  people,  at  the  present  day,  can  be 
explained  by  their  national  religion. 
They  do  not  feel  responsible  for  it ;  it 
lies  far  outside  of  them.  Their  loyalty 
to  truth,  and  their  labor  and  expenditure  rest  on 
real  foundations,  and  not  on  a  national  church. 
An  English  life,  it  is  evident,  does  not  grow  out 
of  the  Athanasian  creed,  or  the  Articles,  or  the 
Eucharist.  It  is  with  religion  as  with  marriage. 
A  youth  marries  in  haste ;  afterward,  when  his 
mind  is  opened  to  the  reason  of  the  conduct  of 
life,  he  is  asked  what  he  thinks  of  the  institution  of 
marriage,  and  of  the  right  relations  of  the  sexes? 
*  I  should  have  much  to  say/  he  might  reply,  *  if 
the  question  were  open,  but  I  have  a  wife  and 
children,  and  all  question  is  closed  for  me.'  In  the 
barbarous  days  of  a  nation,  some  cultus  is  formed 
or  imported  ;  altars  are  built,  tithes  are  paid,  priests 
ordained.  The  education  and  expenditure  of  the 
country  take  that  direction,  and  when  wealth,  re 
finement,  great  men,  and  ties  to  the  world  super 
vene,  its  prudent  men  say,  why  fight  against  Fate, 
or  lift  these  absurdities  which  are  now  moun 
tainous  ?  Better  find  some  niche  or  crevice  in 
this  mountain  of  stone  which  religious  ages  have 
quarried  and  carved,  wherein  to  bestow  yourself, 
than  attempt  any  thing  ridiculously  and  dangerously 
above  your  strength,  like  removing  it. 

In  seeing  old  castles  and  cathedrals,  I  sometimes 
say,  as  to-day,  in  front  of  Dundee  Church  tower, 
which  is  eight  hundred  years  old,  '  This  was  built 
by  another  and  a  better  race  than  any  that  now 
look  on  it.'  And,  plainly,  there  has  been  great 
power  of  sentiment  at  work  in  this  island,  of  which 
1  161 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

these  buildings  are  the  proofs :  as  volcanic  basalts 
show  the  work  of  fire  which  has  been  extinguished 
for  ages.  England  felt  the  full  heat  of  the  Chris 
tianity  which  fermented  Europe,  and  drew,  like  the 
chemistry  of  fire,  a  firm  line  between  barbarism  and 
culture.  The  power  of  the  religious  sentiment  put 
an  end  to  human  sacrifices,  checked  appetite,  in 
spired  the  crusades,  inspired  resistance  to  tyrants, 
inspired  self-respect,  set  bounds  to  serfdom  and 
slavery,  founded  liberty,  created  the  religious  archi 
tecture, — York,  Newstead,  Westminster,  Fountains 
Abbey,  Ripon,  Beverley,  and  Dundee, — works  to 
which  the  key  is  lost,  with  the  sentiment  which 
created  them ;  inspired  the  English  Bible,  the 
liturgy,  the  monkish  histories,  the  chronicle  of 
Richard  of  Devizes.  The  priest  translated  the 
Vulgate,  and  translated  the  sanctities  of  old  hagio- 
logy  into  English  virtues  on  English  ground.  It 
was  a  certain  affirmative  or  aggressive  state  of  the 
Caucasian  races.  Man  awoke,  refreshed  by  the 
sleep  of  ages.  The  violence  of  the  northern  savages 
exasperated  Christianity  into  power.  It  lived  by 
the  love  of  the  people.  Bishop  Wilfrid  manumitted 
two  hundred  and  fifty  serfs,  whom  he  found  attached 
to  the  soil.  The  clergy  obtained  respite  from  labor 
for  the  boor  on  the  Sabbath,  and  on  church  festi 
vals.  "The  lord  who  compelled  his  boor  to  labor 
between  sunset  on  Saturday  and  sunset  on  Sunday, 
forfeited  him  altogether."  The  priest  came  out  of 
the  people,  and  sympathized  with  his  class.  The 
church  was  the  mediator,  check,  and  democratic 
principle,  in  Europe.  Latimer,  Wicliffe,  Arundel, 
Cobham,  Antony  Parsons,  Sir  Harry  Vane,  George 
Fox,  Penn,  Bunyan,  are  the  democrats,  as  well  as 
the  saints,  of  their  times.  The  Catholic  church, 
162 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

thrown  on  this  toiling,  serious  people,  has  made  in 
fourteen  centuries  a  massive  system,  close  fitted  to 
the  manners  and  genius  of  the  country,  at  once 
domestical  and  stately.  In  the  long  time,  it  has 
blended  with  everything  in  heaven  above  and  the 
earth  beneath.  It  moves  through  a  zodiac  offcasts 
and  fasts,  names  every  day  of  the  year,  every  town 
and  market  and  headland  and  monument,  and  has 
coupled  itself  with  the  almanac,  that  no  court  can 
be  held,  no  field  ploughed,  no  horse  shod,  without 
some  leave  from  the  church.  All  maxims  of  pru 
dence,  or  shop,  or  farm,  are  fixed  and  dated  by  the 
church.  Hence,  its  strength  in  the  agricultural  dis 
tricts.  The  distribution  of  land  into  parishes  enforces 
a  church  sanction  to  every  civil  privilege ;  and  the 
gradation  of  the  clergy, — prelates  for  the  rich,  and 
curates  for  the  poor, — with  the  fact  that  a  clas 
sical  education  has  been  secured  to  the  clergyman, 
makes  them  "the  link  which  unites  the  sequestered 
peasantry  with  the  intellectual  advancement  of  the 
^ge."1 

The  English  church  has  many  certificates  to 
show  of  humble,  effective  service  in  humanizing  the 
people,  in  cheering  and  refining  men,  feeding,  heal 
ing,  and  educating.  It  has  the  seal  of  martyrs  and 
confessors ;  the  noblest  books  ;  a  sublime  architec 
ture  ;  a  ritual  marked  by  the  same  secular  merits, 
nothing  cheap  or  purchasable. 

From  this  slow-grown  church  important  reac 
tions  proceed  ;  much  for  culture,  much  for  giving 
a  direction  to  the  nation's  affection  and  will  to 
day.  The  carved  and  pictured  chapel, — its  entire 
surface  animated  with  image  and  emblem, — made 
the  parish-church  a  sort  of  book  and  Bible  to  the 
people's  eye. 

163 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

Then,  when  the  Saxon  instinct  had  secured  a 
service  in  the  vernacular  tongue,  it  was  the  tutor 
and  university  of  the  people.  In  York  minster,  on 
the  day  of  the  enthronization  of  the  new  arch 
bishop,  I  heard  the  service  of  evening  prayer  read 
and  chanted  in  the  choir.  It  was  strange  to  hear 
the  pretty  pastoral  of  the  betrothal  of  Rebecca  and 
Isaac,  in  the  morning  of  the  world,  read  with  cir 
cumstantiality  in  York  minster, on  the  13th  January, 
1848,  to  the  decorous  English  audience,  just  fresh 
from  the  "Times"  newspaper  and  their  wine;  and 
listening  with  all  the  devotion  of  national  pride. 
That  was  binding  old  and  new  to  some  purpose. 
The  reverence  for  the  Scriptures  is  an  element  of 
civilization,  for  thus  has  the  history  of  the  world 
been  preserved,  and  is  preserved.  Here  in  Eng 
land  every  day  a  chapter  of  Genesis,  and  a  leader 
in  the  "  Times." 

Another  part  of  the  same  service  on  this  occasion 
was  not  insignificant.  Handel's  coronation  anthem, 
"God  save  the  King,"  was  played  by  Dr.  Camidge 
on  the  organ,  with  sublime  effect.  The  minster  and 
the  music  were  made  for  each  other.  It  was  a  hint 
of  the  part  the  church  plays  as  a  political  engine. 
From  his  infancy,  every  Englishman  is  accustomed 
to  hear  daily  prayers  for  the  Queen,  for  the  royal 
family  and  the  Parliament,  by  name  ;  and  this  life 
long  consecration  of  these  personages  cannot  be 
without  influence  on  his  opinions. 

The  universities,  also,  are  parcel  of  the  ecclesi 
astical  system,  and  their  first  design  is  to  form  the 
clergy.  Thus  the  clergy  for  a  thousand  years  have 
been  the  scholars  of  the  nation. 

The  national  temperament  deeply  enjoys  the 
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ENGLISH  TRAITS 

unbroken  order  and  tradition  of  its  church ;  the 
liturgy,  ceremony,  architecture ;  the  sober  grace, 
the  good  company,  the  connection  with  the  throne, 
and  with  history,  which  adorn  it.  And  whilst  it 
endears  itself  thus  to  men  of  more  taste  than  activity, 
the  stability  of  the  English  nation  is  passionately 
enlisted  to  its  support,  from  its  inextricable  con 
nection  with  the  cause  of  public  order,  with  politics, 
and  with  the  funds. 

Good  churches  are  not  built  by  bad  men ;  at  least, 
there  must  be  probity  and  enthusiasm  somewhere  in 
the  society.  These  minsters  were  neither  built  nor 
filled  by  atheists.  No  church  has  had  more  learned, 
industrious,  or  devoted  men ;  plenty  of  "  clerks  and 
bishops,  who,  out  of  their  gowns,  would  turn  their 
backs  on  no  man."  2  Their  architecture  still  glows 
with  faith  in  immortality.  Heats  and  genial  periods 
arrive  in  history,  or  shall  we  say,  plentitudes  of 
Divine  Presence,  by  which  high  tides  are  caused 
in  the  human  spirit,  and  great  virtues  and  talents 
appear,  as  in  the  eleventh,  twelfth,  thirteenth,  and 
again  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries, 
when  the  nation  was  full  of  genius  and  piety. 

But  the  age  of  the  WiclhTes,  Gobhams,  Arundels, 
Beckets;  of  the  Latimers,  Mores,  Granmers;  of 
the  Taylors,  Leightons,  Herberts  ;  of  the  Sherlocks, 
and  Butlers,  is  gone.  Silent  revolutions  in  opinion 
have  made  it  impossible  that  men  like  these  should 
return,  or  find  a  place  in  their  once  sacred  stalls. 
The  spirit  that  dwelt  in  this  church  has  glided  away 
to  animate  other  activities ;  and  they  who  come  to 
the  old  shrines  find  apes  and  players  rustling  the 
old  garments. 

The  religion  of  England  is  part  of  good-breeding. 
When  you  see  on  the  continent  the  well-dressed 

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ENGLISH  TRAITS 

Englishman  come  into  his  ambassador's  chapel,  and 
put  his  face  for  silent  prayer  into  his  smooth-brushed 
hat,  one  cannot  help  feeling  how  much  national  pride 
prays  with  him,  and  the  religion  of  a  gentleman. 
So  far  is  he  from  attaching  any  meaning  to  the  words, 
that  he  believes  himself  to  have  done  almost  the 
generous  thing,  and  that  it  is  very  condescending 
in  him  to  pray  to  God.  A  great  duke  said,  on  the 
occasion  of  a  victory,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that 
he  thought  the  Almighty  God  had  not  been  well 
used  by  them,  and  that  it  would  become  their 
magnanimity,  after  so  great  successes,  to  take  order 
that  a  proper  acknowledgment  be  made.  It  is  the 
church  of  the  gentry ;  but  it  is  not  the  church  of 
the  poor.  The  operatives  do  not  own  it,  and  gentle 
men  lately  testified  in  the  House  of  Commons  that  in 
their  lives  they  never  saw  a  poor  man  in  a  ragged 
coat  inside  a  church. 

The  torpidity  on  the  side  of  religion  of  the 
vigorous  English  understanding  shows  how  much 
wit  and  folly  can  agree  in  one  brain.  Their  religion 
is  a  quotation;  their  church  is  a  doll;  and  any  exa 
mination  is  interdicted  with  screams  of  terror.  In 
good  company,  you  expect  them  to  laugh  at  the 
fanaticism  of  the  vulgar  ;  but  they  do  not  :  they 
are  the  vulgar. 

The  English,  in  common  perhaps  with  Chris 
tendom  in  the  nineteenth  century,  do  not  respect 
power,  but  only  performance ;  value  ideas  only  for 
an  economic  result.  Wellington  esteems  a  saint 
only  as  far  as  he  can  be  an  army  chaplain : — "  Mr. 
Briscoll,  by  his  admirable  conduct  and  good  sense, 
got  the  better  of  Methodism,  which  had  appeared 
among  the  soldiers,  and  once  among  the  officers." 
They  value  a  philosopher  as  they  value  an  apothe- 
166 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

cary  who  brings  bark  or  a  drench ;  and  inspiration 
is  only  some  blowpipe,  or  a  finer  mechanical  aid. 

I  suspect  that  there  is  in  an  Englishman's  brain 
a  valve  that  can  be  closed  at  pleasure,  as  an  engi 
neer  shuts  off  steam.  The  most  sensible  and  well- 
informed  men  possess  the  power  of  thinking  just  so 
far  as  the  bishop  in  religious  matters,  and  as  the 
chancellor  of  the  exchequer  in  politics.  They  talk 
with  courage  and  logic,  and  show  you  magnificent 
results,  but  the  same  men  who  have  brought  free 
trade  or  geology  to  their  present  standing,  look 
grave  and  lofty,  and  shut  down  their  valve,  as  soon 
as  the  conversation  approaches  the  English  church. 
After  that,  you  talk  with  a  box-turtle. 

The  action  of  the  university,  both  in  what  is 
taught,  and  in  the  spirit  of  the  place,  is  directed  more 
on  producing  an  English  gentleman,  than  a  saint 
or  a  psychologist.  It  ripens  a  bishop,  and  extrudes 
a  philosopher.  I  do  not  know  that  there  is  more 
cabalism  in  the  Anglican,  than  in  other  churches, 
but  the  Anglican  clergy  are  identified  with  the 
aristocracy.  They  say,  here,  that,  if  you  talk  with 
a  clergyman,  you  are  sure  to  find  him  well-bred, 
informed,  and  candid.  He  entertains  your  thought 
or  your  project  with  sympathy  and  praise.  But  if 
a  second  clergyman  come  in,  the  sympathy  is  at  an 
end  :  two  together  are  inaccessible  to  your  thought, 
and,  whenever  it  comes  to  action,  the  clergyman 
invariably  sides  with  his  church. 

The  Anglican  church  is  marked  by  the  grace  and 
good  sense  of  its  forms,  by  the  manly  grace  of  its 
clergy.  The  gospel  it  preaches  is,  '  By  taste  are  ye 
saved.'  It  keeps  the  old  structures  in  repair,  spends 
a  world  of  money  in  music  and  building ;  and  in 
buying  Pugin,  and  architectural  literature.  It  has 

167 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

a  general  good  name  for  amenity  and  mildness.  It 
is  not  in  ordinary  a  persecuting  church ;  it  is  not 
inquisitorial,  not  even  inquisitive,  is  perfectly  well- 
bred,  and  can  shut  its  eyes  on  all  proper  occasions. 
If  you  let  it  alone,  it  will  let  you  alone.  But  its 
instinct  is  hostile  to  all  change  in  politics,  literature, 
or  social  arts.  The  church  has  not  been  the  founder 
of  the  London  University,  of  the  Mechanics'  Insti 
tutes,  of  the  Free  School,  or  whatever  aims  at  dif 
fusion  of  knowledge.  The  Platonists  of  Oxford  are 
as  bitter  against  this  heresy,  as  Thomas  Taylor. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Old  Testament  is  the  religion 
of  England.  The  first  leaf  of  the  New  Testament 
it  does  not  open.  It  believes  in  a  Providence  which 
does  not  treat  with  levity  a  pound  sterling.  They  are 
neither  Transcendentalists  nor  Christians.  They 
put  up  no  Socratic  prayer,  much  less  any  saintly 
prayer  for  the  queen's  mind ;  ask  neither  for  light 
nor  right,  but  say  bluntly,  "  Grant  her  in  health 
and  wealth  long  to  live."  And  one  traces  this  Jewish 
prayer  in  all  English  private  history,  from  the 
prayers  of  King  Richard,  in  Richard  of  Devizes' 
Chronicle,  to  those  in  the  diaries  of  Sir  Samuel 
Romilly,  and  of  Haydon  the  painter.  "Abroad  with 
my  wife,"  writes  Pepys  piously,  "  the  first  time  that 
ever  I  rode  in  my  own  coach  ;  which  do  make  my 
heart  rejoice  and  praise  God,  and  pray  Him  to  bless 
it  to  me,  and  continue  it."  The  bill  for  the  natural 
ization  of  the  Jews  (in  1753)  was  resisted  by  peti 
tions  from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  by  petition 
from  the  city  of  London,  reprobating  this  bill,  as, 
"  tending  extremely  to  the  dishonor  of  the  Christian 
religion,  and  extremely  injurious  to  the  interests  and 
commerce  of  the  kingdom  in  general,  and  of  the 
city  of  London  in  particular." 
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ENGLISH  TRAITS 

But  they  have  not  been  able  to  congeal  humanity 
by  act  of  Parliament.  "  The  heavens  journey  still 
and  sojourn  not,"  and  arts,  wars,  discoveries,  and 
opinion  go  onward  at  their  own  pace.  The  new  age 
has  new  desires,  new  enemies,  new  trades,  new 
charities,  and  reads  the  Scriptures  with  new  eyes. 
The  chatter  of  French  politics,  the  steam-whistle, 
the  hum  of  the  mill,  and  the  noise  of  embarking  emi 
grants  had  quite  put  most  of  the  old  legends  out  of 
mind ;  so  that  when  you  came  to  read  the  liturgy 
to  a  modern  congregation,  it  was  almost  absurd  in 
its  unfitness,  and  suggested  a  masquerade  of  old 
costumes. 

No  chemist  has  prospered  in  the  attempt  to  crys 
tallize  a  religion.  It  is  endogenous,  like  the  skin,  and 
other  vital  organs.  A  new  statement  every  day. 
The  prophet  and  apostle  knew  this,  and  the  non 
conformist  confutes  the  conformists,  by  quoting  the 
texts  they  must  allow.  It  is  the  condition  of  a  reli 
gion,  to  require  religion  for  its  expositor.  Prophet 
and  apostle  can  only  be  rightly  understood  by  pro 
phet  and  apostle.  The  statesman  knows  that  the 
religious  element  will  not  fail,  any  more  than  the 
supply  of  fibrine  and  chyle  ;  but  it  is  in  its  nature 
constructive,  and  will  organize  such  a  church  as  it 
wants.  The  wise  legislator  will  spend  on  temples, 
schools,  libraries,  colleges,  but  will  shun  the  enrich 
ing  of  priests.  If,  in  any  manner,  he  can  leave  the 
election  and  paying  of  the  priest  to  the  people,  he 
will  do  well.  Like  the  Quakers,  he  may  resist  tho 
separation  of  a  class  of  priests,  and  create  oppor 
tunity  and  expectation  in  the  society,  to  run  to  meet 
natural  endowment,  in  this  kind.  But,  when  wealth 
accrues  to  a  chaplaincy,  a  bishopric,  or  rectorship, 
it  requires  moneyed  men  for  its  stewards,  who  will 

169 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

give  it  another  direction  than  to  the  mystics  of  their 
day.  Of  course,  money  will  do  after  its  kind,  and 
will  steadily  work  to  unspiritualize  and  unchurch 
the  people  to  whom  it  was  bequeathed.  The  class 
certain  to  be  excluded  from  all  preferment  are  the 
religious, — and  driven  to  other  churches ; — which 
is  nature's  vis  medicatrix. 

The  curates  are  ill  paid,  and  the  prelates  are  over 
paid.  This  abuse  draws  into  the  church  the  children 
of  the  nobility,  and  other  unfit  persons  who  have  a 
taste  for  expense.  Thus  a  bishop  is  only  a  surpliced 
merchant.  Through  his  lawn,  I  can  see  the  bright 
buttons  of  the  shopman's  coat  glitter.  A  wealth  like 
that  of  Durham  makes  almost  a  premium  on  felony. 
Brougham,  in  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons 
on  the  Irish  elective  franchise,  said, '  How  will  the 
reverend  bishops  of  the  other  house  be  able  to 
express  their  due  abhorrence  of  the  crime  of  per 
jury,  who  solemnly  declare  in  the  presence  of  God, 
that  when  they  are  called  upon  to  accept  a  living, 
perhaps  of  £4000  a  year,  at  that  very  instant,  they 
are  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to  accept  the  office 
and  administration  thereof,  and  for  no  other  reason 
whatever?"  The  modes  of  initiation  are  more 
damaging  than  custom-house  oaths.  The  Bishop  is 
elected  by  the  Dean  and  Prebends  of  the  cathedral. 
The  Queen  sends  these  gentlemen  a  conge  d'elire,  or 
leave  to  elect ;  but  also  sends  them  the  name  of  the 
person  whom  they  are  to  elect.  They  go  into  the 
cathedral,  chant  and  pray,  and  beseech  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  assist  them  in  their  choice;  and,  after 
these  invocations,  invariably  find  that  the  dictates 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  agree  with  the  recommendations 
of  the  Queen. 

But  you  must  pay  for  conformity.  All  goes  well 
170 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

as  long  as  you  run  with  conformists.  But  you,  who 
are  honest  man  in  other  particulars,  know  that  there 
is  alive  somewhere  a  man  whose  honesty  reaches  to 
this  point  also,  that  he  shall  not  kneel  to  false  gods, 
and,  on  the  day  when  you  meet  him,  you  sink  into 
the  class  of  counterfeits.  Besides,  this  succumbing 
has  grave  penalties.  If  you  take  in  a  lie,  you  must 
take  in  all  that  belongs  to  it.  England  accepts  this 
ornamented  national  church,  and  it  glazes  the  eyes, 
bloats  the  flesh,  gives  the  voice  a  stertorous  clang, 
and  clouds  the  understanding  of  the  receivers. 

The  English  church,  undermined  by  German 
criticism,  had  nothing  left  but  tradition,  and  was 
led  logically  back  to  Romanism.  But  that  was  an 
element  which  only  hot  heads  could  breathe :  in 
view  of  the  educated  class,  generally,  it  was  not  a 
fact  to  front  the  sun ;  and  the  alienation  of  such 
men  from  the  church  became  complete. 

Nature,  to  be  sure,  had  her  remedy.  Religious 
persons  are  driven  out  of  the  Established  Church 
into  sects,  which  instantly  rise  to  credit,  and  hold 
the  Establishment  in  check.  Nature  has  sharper 
remedies,  also.  The  English,  abhorring  change  in 
all  things,  abhorring  it  most  in  matters  of  religion, 
cling  to  the  last  rag  of  form,  and  are  dreadfully 
given  to  cant.  The  English  (and  I  wish  it  were 
confined  to  them,  but  'tis  a  taint  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
blood  in  both  hemispheres),  the  English  and  the 
Americans  cant  beyond  all  other  nations.  The 
French  relinquish  all  that  industry  to  them.  What 
is  so  odious  as  the  polite  bows  to  God,  in  our  books 
and  newspapers  ?  The  popular  press  is  flagitious  in 
the  exact  measure  of  its  sanctimony,  and  the  religion 
of  the  day  is  a  theatrical  Sinai,  where  the  thunders 
are  supplied  by  the  property-man.  The  fanaticism 

171 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

and  hypocrisy  create  satire.  Punch  finds  an  in 
exhaustible  material.  Dickens  writes  novels  on 
Exeter-Hall  humanity.  Thackeray  exposes  the 
heartless  high  life.  Nature  revenges  herself  more 
summarily  by  the  heathenism  of  the  lower  classes. 
Lord  Shaftesbury  calls  the  poor  thieves  together, 
and  reads  sermons  to  them,  and  they  call  it  '  gas.' 
George  Borrow  summons  the  Gypsies  to  hear  his 
discourse  on  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt,  and  reads  to 
them  the  Apostles'  Greed  in  Rommany.  "  When  I 
had  concluded,"  he  says,  "  I  looked  around  me. 
The  features  of  the  assembly  were  twisted,  and  the 
eyes  of  all  turned  upon  me  with  a  frightful  squint: 
not  an  individual  present  but  squinted ;  the  genteel 
Pepa,  the  good-humored  Chicharona,  the  Gosdami, 
all  squinted  :  the  Gypsy  jockey  squinted  worst  of 
all." 

The  church  at  this  moment  is  much  to  be  pitied. 
She  has  nothing  left  but  possession.  If  a  bishop 
meets  an  intelligent  gentleman,  and  reads  fatal  in 
terrogations  in  his  eyes,  he  has  no  resource  but  to 
take  wine  with  him.  False  position  introduces  cant, 
perjury,  simony,  and  ever  a  lower  class  of  mind  and 
character  into  the  clergy:  and,  when  the  hierarchy 
is  afraid  of  science  and  education,  afraid  of  piety, 
afraid  of  tradition,  and  afraid  of  theology,  there  is 
nothing  left  but  to  quit  a  church  which  is  no  longer 
one. 

But  the  religion  of  England, — is  it  the  Established 
Church?  no;  is  it  the  sects?  no;  they  are  only 
perpetuations  of  some  private  man's  dissent,  and 
are  to  the  Established  Church  as  cabs  are  to  a 
coach,  cheaper  and  more  convenient,  but  really  the 
same  thing.  Where  dwells  the  religion  ?  Tell  me 
first  where  dwells  electricity,  or  motion,  or  thought, 
172 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

or  gesture.  They  do  not  dwell  or  stay  at  all.  Elec 
tricity  cannot  be  made  fast,  mortared  up  and  ended, 
like  London  Monument,  or  the  Tower,  so  that  you 
shall  know  where  to  find  it,  and  keep  it  fixed,  as 
the  English  do  with  their  things,  forevermore;  it 
is  passing,  glancing,  gesticular ;  it  is  a  traveller,  a 
newness,  a  surprise,  a  secret,  which  perplexes  them, 
and  puts  them  out.  Yet,  if  religion  be  the  doing  of 
all  good,  and  for  its  sake  the  suffering  of  all  evil, 
souffrir  de  tout  le  monde  et  ne  faire  souffrir  personne, 
that  divine  secret  has  existed  in  England  from  the 
days  of  Alfred  to  those  of  Romilly,  of  Glarkson, 
and  of  Florence  Nightingale,  and  in  thousands  who 
have  no  fame. 


NOTES 

1  Wordsworth. 

2  Fuller. 


173 


CHAPTER  XIV.  LITERATURE 

STRONG  common-sense,  which  it  is 
not  easy  to  unseat  or  disturb,  marks 
the  English  mind  for  a  thousand  years : 
a  rude  strength  newly  appliedto  thought, 
as  of  sailors  and  soldiers  who  had  lately  learned  to 
read.  They  have  no  fancy,  and  never  are  surprised 
into  a  covert  or  witty  word,  such  as  pleased  the 
Athenians  and  Italians,  and  was  convertible  into 
a  fable  not  long  after ;  but  they  delight  in  strong 
earthly  expression,  not  mistakable,  coarsely  true  to 
the  human  body,  and,  though  spoken  among  princes, 
equally  fit  and  welcome  to  the  mob.  This  homeli 
ness,  veracity,  and  plain  style  appear  in  the  earliest 
extant  works,  and  in  the  latest.  It  imports  into  songs 
and  ballads  the  smell  of  the  earth,  the  breath  of 
cattle,  and,  like  a  Dutch  painter,  seeks  a  household 
charm,  though  by  pails  and  pans.  They  ask  their 
constitutional  utility  in  verse.  The  kail  and  herrings 
are  never  out  of  sight.  The  poet  nimbly  recovers 
himself  from  every  sally  of  the  imagination.  The 
English  muse  loves  the  farmyard,  the  lane,  and 
market.  She  says,  with  De  Stael,  "  I  tramp  in  the 
mire  with  wooden  shoes,  whenever  they  would  force 
me  into  the  clouds."  For,  the  Englishman  has  ac 
curate  perceptions;  takes  hold  of  things  by  the 
right  end,  and  there  is  no  slipperiness  in  his  grasp. 
He  loves  the  axe,  the  spade,  the  oar,  the  gun,  the 
steam-pipe :  he  has  built  the  engine  he  uses.  He 
is  materialist,  economical,  mercantile.  He  must  be 
treated  with  sincerity  and  reality,  with  muffins,  and 
not  the  promise  of  muffins ;  and  prefers  his  hot  chop, 
with  perfect  security  and  convenience  in  the  eating 
of  it,  to  the  chances  of  the  amplest  and  Frenchiest 
bill  of  fare,  engraved  on  embossed  paper.  When  he 

175 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

is  intellectual,  and  a  poet  or  a  philosopher,  he  carries 
,the  same  hard  truth  and  the  same  keen  machinery 
into  the  mental  sphere.  His  mind  must  stand  on  a 
fact.  He  will  not  be  baffled,  or  catch  at  clouds,  but 
the  mind  must  have  a  symbol  palpable  and  resisting. 
What  he  relishes  in  Dante  is  the  vice-like  tenacity 
•with  which  he  holds  a  mental  image  before  the  eyes, 
as  if  it  were  a  scutcheon  painted  on  a  shield.  Byron 
"liked  something  craggy  to  break  his  mind  upon." 
A  taste  for  plain  strong  speech,  what  is  called  a 
biblical  style,  marks  the  English.  It  is  in  Alfred, 
and  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  and  in  the  Sagas  of  the 
Northmen.  Latimer  was  homely.  Hobbes  was  per 
fect  in  the  "noble  vulgar  speech."  Donne,  Bunyan, 
Milton,  Taylor,  Evelyn,  Pepys,  Hooker,  Cotton, 
and  the  translators  wrote  it.  How  realistic  or 
materialistic  in  treatment  of  his  subject  is  Swift. 
He  describes  his  fictitious  persons,  as  if  for  the 
police.  Defoe  has  no  insecurity  or  choice.  "Hudi- 
bras"  has  the  same  hard  mentality, — keeping  the 
truth  at  once  to  the  senses,  and  to  the  intellect. 

It  is  not  less  seen  in  poetry.  Chaucer's  hard 
painting  of  his  Canterbury  pilgrims  satisfies  the 
senses.  Shakspeare,  Spenser,  and  Milton,  in  their 
loftiest  ascents,  have  this  national  grip  and  exacti 
tude  of  mind.  This  mental  materialism  makes  the 
value  of  English  transcendental  genius ;  in  these 
writers,  and  in  Herbert,  Henry  More,  Donne,  and 
Sir  Thomas  Browne.  The  Saxon  materialism  and 
narrowness,  exalted  into  the  sphere  of  intellect, 
makes  the  very  genius  of  Shakspeare  and  Milton. 
When  it  reaches  the  pure  element,  it  treads  the 
clouds  as  securely  as  the  adamant.  Even  in  its 
elevations,  materialistic,  its  poetry  is  common-sense 
inspired;  or  iron  raised  to  white  heat. 
176 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

The  marriage  of  the  two  qualities  is  in  their 
speech.  It  is  a  tacit  rule  of  the  language  to  make 
the  frame  or  skeleton  of  Saxon  words,  and,  when 
elevation  or  ornament  is  sought,  to  interweave 
Roman  ;  but  sparingly  ;  nor  is  a  sentence  made  of 
Roman  words  alone,  without  loss  of  strength.  The 
children  and  laborers  use  the  Saxon  unmixed.  The 
Latin  unmixed  is  abandoned  to  the  colleges  and 
Parliament.  Mixture  is  a  secret  of  the  English 
island;  and,  in  their  dialect,  the  male  principle  is 
the  Saxon ;  the  female,  the  Latin ;  and  they  are 
combined  in  every  discourse.  A  good  writer,  if  he 
has  indulged  in  a  Roman  roundness,  makes  haste 
to  chasten  and  nerve  his  period  by  English  mono 
syllables. 

When  the  Gothic  nations  came  into  Europe,  they 
found  it  lighted  with  the  sun  and  moon  of  Hebrew 
and  of  Greek  genius.  The  tablets  of  their  brain, 
long  kept  in  the  dark,  were  finely  sensible  to  the 
double  glory.  To  the  images  from  this  twin  source 
(of  Christianity  and  art),  the  mind  became  fruitful 
as  by  the  incubation  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  Eng 
lish  mind  flowered  in  every  faculty.  The  common- 
sense  was  surprised  and  inspired.  For  two  centuries, 
England  was  philosophic,  religious,  poetic.  The 
mental  furniture  seemed  of  larger  scale;  the  memory 
capacious  like  the  storehouse  of  the  rains ;  the  ardor 
and  endurance  of  study ;  the  boldness  and  facility 
oftheirmentalconstruction ;  their  fancy  and  imagina 
tion,  and  easy  spanning  of  vast  distances  of  thought; 
the  enterprise  or  accosting  of  new  subjects ;  and, 
generally,  the  easy  exertion  of  power,  astonish,  like 
the  legendary  feats  of  Guy  of  Warwick.  The  union 
of  Saxon  precision  and  Oriental  soaring,  of  which 
Shakspeare  is  the  perfect  example,  is  shared  in  less 
m  177 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

degree  by  the  writers  of  two  centuries.  I  find  not 
only  the  great  masters  out  of  all  rivalry  and  reach, 
but  the  whole  writing  of  the  time  charged  with  a 
masculine  force  and  freedom. 

There  is  a  hygienic  simpleness,  rough  vigor,  and 
closeness  to  the  matter  in  hand,  even  in  the  second 
and  third  class  of  writers ;  and,  I  think,  in  the  com 
mon  style  of  the  people,  as  one  finds  it  in  the  citation 
of  wills,  letters,  and  public  documents,  in  proverbs, 
and  forms  of  speech.  The  more  hearty  and  sturdy 
expression  may  indicate  that  the  savageness  of  the 
Norseman  was  not  all  gone.  Their  dynamic  brains 
hurled  off  their  words,  as  the  revolving  stone  hurls 
off  scraps  of  grit.  I  could  cite  from  the  seventeenth 
century  sentences  and  phrases  of  edge  not  to  be 
matched  in  the  nineteenth.  Their  poets  by  simple 
force  of  mind  equalized  themselves  with  the  accu 
mulated  science  of  ours.  The  country  gentlemen 
had  a  posset  or  drink  they  called  October;  and 
the  poets,  as  if  by  this  hint,  knew  how  to  distil  the 
whole  season  into  their  autumnal  verses :  and,  as 
nature,  to  pique  the  more,  sometimes  works  up 
deformities  into  beauty,  in  some  rare  Aspasia,  or 
Cleopatra ;  and,  as  the  Greek  art  wrought  many 
a  vase  or  column,  in  which  too  long,  or  too  lithe, 
or  nodes,  or  pits  and  flaws,  are  made  a  beauty  of; 
so  these  were  so  quick  and  vital,  that  they  could 
charm  and  enrich  by  mean  and  vulgar  objects. 

A  man  must  think  that  age  well  taught  and 
thoughtful  by  which  masques  and  poems,  like  those 
of  Ben  Jonson,  full  of  heroic  sentiment  in  a  manly 
style,  were  received  with  favor.  The  unique  fact 
in  literary  history,  the  unsurprised  reception  of 
Shakspeare; — the  reception  proved  by  his  making 
his  fortune ;  and  the  apathy  proved  by  the  absence 
178 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

of  all  contemporary  panegyric, — seems  to  demon 
strate  an  elevation  in  the  mind  of  the  people. 
Judge  of  the  splendor  of  a  nation,  by  the  insignifi 
cance  of  great  individuals  in  it.  The  manner  in 
which  they  learned  Greek  and  Latin,  before  our 
modern  facilities  were  yet  ready,  without  dic 
tionaries,  grammars,  or  indexes,  by  lectures  of  a 
professor,  followed  by  their  own  searchings, — re 
quired  a  more  robust  memory,  and  cooperation 
of  all  the  faculties  ;  and  their  scholars,  Gamden, 
Usher,  Selden,  Mede,  Gataker,  Hooker,  Taylor, 
Burton,  Bentley,  Brian  Walton,  acquired  the 
solidity  and  method  of  engineers. 

The  influence  of  Plato  tinges  the  British  genius. 
Their  minds  loved  analogy;  were  cognizant  of  re 
semblances,  and  climbers  on  the  staircase  of  unity.) 
'Tis  a  very  old  strife  between  those  who  elect  to  see] 
identity,  and  those  who  elect  to  see  discrepancies ; 
and  it  renews  itself  in  Britain.  The  poets,  of  course, 
are  of  one  part ;  the  men  of  the  world,  of  the  other. 
But  Britain  had  many  disciples  of  Plato ; — More, 
Hooker,  Bacon,  Sidney,  Lord  Brooke,  Herbert, 
Browne,  Donne,  Spenser,  Chapman,  Milton,  Cra- 
shaw,  Norris,  Gudworth,  Berkeley,  Jeremy  Taylor. 
Lord  Bacon  has  the  English  duality.  His  cen 
turies  of  observations,  on  useful  science,  and  his 
experiments,  I  suppose,  were  worth  nothing.  One 
hint  of  Franklin,  or  Watt,  or  Dalton,  or  Davy,  01 
any  one  who  had  a  talent  for  experiment,  was  worth 
all  his  lifetime  of  exquisite  trifles.  But  he  drinks 
of  a  diviner  stream,  and  marks  the  influx  of  idealism 
into  England.  Where  that  goes,  is  poetry,  health, 
and  progress.  The  rules  of  its  genesis  or  its  diffusion 
are  not  known.  That  knowledge,  if  we  had  it,  would 
supersede  all  that  we  call  science  of  the  mind.  It 

179 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

seems  an  affair  of  race,  or  of  meta-chemistry ; — 
the  vital  point  being, — how  far  the  sense  of  unity, 
or  instinct  of  seeking  resemblances,  predominated. 
For,  wherever  the  mind  takes  a  step,  it  is,  to  put 
itself  at  one  with  a  larger  class,  discerned  beyond 
the  lesser  class  with  which  it  has  been  conver 
sant.  Hence  all  poetry  and  all  affirmative  action 
come. 

Bacon,  in  the  structure  of  his  mind,  held  of  the 
analogists,  of  the  idealists,  or  (as  we  popularly  say, 
naming  from  the  best  example)  Platonists.  Who 
ever  discredits  analogy,  and  requires  heaps  of  facts, 
before  any  theories  can  be  attempted,  has  no  poetic 
power,  and  nothing  original  or  beautiful  will  be  pro 
duced  by  him.  Locke  is  as  surely  the  influx  of  de 
composition  and  of  prose,  as  Bacon  and  the  Platonists 
of  growth.  The  Platonic  is  the  poetic  tendency ;  the 
so-called  scientific  is  the  negative  and  poisonous. 
'Tis  quite  certain  that  Spenser,  Burns,  Byron,  and 
Wordsworth  will  be  Platonists ;  and  that  the  dull 
men  will  be  Lockists.  Then  politics  and  commerce 
will  absorb  from  the  educated  class  men  of  talents 
without  genius,  precisely  because  such  have  no 
resistance. 

Bacon,  capable  of  ideas,  yet  devoted  to  ends,  re 
quired  in  his  map  of  the  mind,  first  of  all,  univer 
sality,  or  prima  philosophia,  the  receptacle  for  all  such 
profitable  observations  and  axioms  as  fall  not  within 
the  compass  of  any  of  the  special  parts  of  philosophy, 
but  are  more  common,  and  of  a  higher  stage.  He 
held  this  element  essential :  it  is  never  out  of  mind : 
he  never  spares  rebukes  for  such  as  neglect  it;  be 
lieving  that  no  perfect  discovery  can  be  made  in  a 
flat  or  level, but  you  must  ascend  to  a  higher  science. 
'"  If  any  man  thinketh  philosophy  and  universality 
180 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

to  be  idle  studies,  he  doth  not  consider  that  all  pro 
fessions  are  from  thence  served  and  supplied,  and 
this  I  take  to  be  a  great  cause  that  has  hindered  the 
progression  of  learning,  because  these  fundamental 
knowledges  have  been  studied  but  in  passage/'  He 
explained  himself  by  giving  various  quaint  examples 
of  the  summary  or  common  laws,  of  which  each 
science  has  its  own  illustration.  He  complains  that 
"  he  finds  this  part  of  learning  very  deficient,  the  pro- 
founder  sort  of  wits  drawing  a  bucket  now  and  then 
for  their  own  use,  but  the  spring-head  unvisited. 
This  was  the  dry  light  which  did  scorch  and  offend 
most  men's  watery  natures."  Plato  had  signified  the 
same  sense,  when  he  said,  "All  the  great  arts  require 
a  subtle  and  speculative  research  into  the  law  of 
nature,,  since  loftiness  of  thought  and  perfect  mastery 
over  every  subject  seem  to  be  derived  from  some 
such  source  as  this.  This  Pericles  had,  in  addition 
to  a  great  natural  genius.  For,  meeting  with  Anaxa- 
goras,  who  was  a  person  of  this  kind,  he  attached 
himself  to  him,  and  nourished  himself  with  sublime 
speculations  on  the  absolute  intelligence  ;  and  im 
ported  thence  into  the  oratorical  art  whatever  could 
be  useful  to  it." 

A  few  generalizations  always  circulate  in  the 
world,  whose  authors  we  do  not  rightly  know,  which 
astonish,  and  appear  to  be  avenues  to  vast  kingdoms 
of  thought,  and  these  are  in  the  world  constants,  like 
the  Gopernican  and  Newtonian  theories  in  physics. 
In  England,  these  may  be  traced  usually  to  Shak- 
speare,  Bacon,  Milton,  or  Hooker,  even  to  Van 
Helmont  and  Behmen,  and  do  all  have  a  kind  of 
filial  retrospect  to  Plato  and  the  Greeks.  Of  this 
kind  is  Lord  Bacon's  sentence,  that  "  nature  is  com 
manded  by  obeying  her ; "  his  doctrine  of  poetry, 

181 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

which  "  accommodates  the  shows  of  things  to  the 
desires  of  the  mind,"  or  the  Zoroastrian  definition 
of  poetry,  mystical,  yet  exact,  "  apparent  pictures 
of  unapparent  natures  ;"  Spenser's  creed,  that  "soul 
is  form,  and  doth  the  body  make  ; "  the  theory  of 
Berkeley,  that  \ve  have  no  certain  assurance  of  the 
existence  of  matter;  Doctor  Samuel  Clarke's  argu 
ment  for  theism  from  the  nature  of  space  and  time  ; 
Harrington's  political  rule  that  power  must  rest  on 
land, — a  rule  which  requires  to  be  liberally  inter 
preted  ;  the  theory  of  Swedenborg,  so  cosmically 
applied  by  him,  that  the  man  makes  his  heaven 
and  hell;  Hegel's  study  of  civil  history,  as  the  con 
flict  of  ideas  and  the  victory  of  the  deeper  thought ; 
the  identity-philosophy  of  Schelling,  couched  in  the 
statement  that  "  all  difference  is  quantitative."  So 
the  very  announcement  of  the  theory  of  gravitation, 
of  Kepler's  three  harmonic  laws,  and  even  of  Dai- 
ton's  doctrine  of  definite  proportions,  finds  a  sudden 
response  in  the  mind,  which  remains  a  superior 
evidence  to  empirical  demonstrations.  I  cite  these 
generalizations,  some  of  which  are  more  recent, 
merely  to  indicate  a  class.  Not  these  particulars, 
but  the  mental  plane  or  the  atmosphere  from  which 
they  emanate,  was  the  home  and  element  of  the 
writers  and  readers  in  what  we  loosely  call  the 
Elizabethan  age  (say,  in  literary  history,  the  period 
from  1575  to  1625),  yet  a  period  almost  short  enough 
to  justify  Ben  Jonson's  remark  on  Lord  Bacon  : 
"About  his  time,  and  within  his  view,  were  born 
all  the  wits  that  could  honor  a  nation,  or  help 
study." 

Such  richness  of  genius  had  not  existed  more 
than  once  before.  These  heights  could  not  be 
maintained.  As  we  find  stumps  of  vast  trees  in 
182 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

our  exhausted  soils,  and  have  received  traditions  of 
their  ancient  fertility  to  tillage,  so  history  reckons 
epochs  in  which  the  intellect  of  famed  races  became 
effete.  So  it  fared  with  English  genius.  These 
heights  were  followed  by  a  meanness,  and  a  descent 
of  the  mind  into  lower  levels;  the  loss  of  wings; 
no  high  speculation.  Locke,  to  whom  the  meaning 
of  ideas  was  unknown,  became  the  type  of  philo 
sophy,  and  his  "understanding"  the  measure,  in 
all  nations,  of  the  English  intellect.  His  country 
men  forsook  the  lofty  sides  of  Parnassus,  on  which 
they  had  once  walked  with  echoing  steps,  and  dis 
used  the  studies  once  so  beloved;  the  powers  of 
thought  fell  into  neglect.  The  later  English  want 
the  faculty  of  Plato  and  Aristotle,  of  grouping  men 
in  natural  classes  by  an  insight  of  general  laws  so 
deep  that  the  rule  is  deduced  with  equal  precision 
from  few  subjects  or  from  one,  as  from  multitudes 
of  lives.  Shakspeare  is  supreme  in  that,  as  in  all 
the  great  mental  energies.  The  Germans  generalize : 
the  English  cannot  interpret  the  German  mind. 
German  science  comprehends  the  English.  The 
absence  of  the  faculty  in  England  is  shown  by  the 
timidity  which  accumulates  mountains  of  facts,  as 
a  bad  general  wants  myriads  of  men  and  miles  of 
redoubts,  to  compensate  the  inspirations  of  courage 
and  conduct. 

The  English  shrink  from  a  generalization.  "They 
do  not  look  abroad  into  universality,  or  they  draw 
only  a  bucket-full  at  the  fountain  of  the  First  Philo 
sophy  for  their  occasion,  and  do  not  go  to  the  spring 
head."  Bacon,  who  said  this,  is  almost  unique  among 
his  countrymen  in  that  faculty,  at  least  among  the 
prose-writers.  Milton,  who  was  the  stair  or  high 
table-land  to  let  down  the  English  genius  from  the 

183 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

summits  of  Shakspeare,  used  this  privilege  some 
times  in  poetry,  more  rarely  in  prose.  For  a  long 
interval  afterwards,  it  is  not  found.  Burke  was 
addicted  to  generalizing,  but  his  was  a  shorter  line ; 
as  his  thoughts  have  less  depth,  they  have  less  com 
pass.  Hume's  abstractions  are  not  deep  or  wise. 
He  owes  his  fame  to  one  keen  observation,  that  no 
copula  had  been  detected  between  any  cause  and 
effect,  either  in  physics  or  in  thought ;  that  the 
term  cause  and  effect  was  loosely  or  gratuitously 
applied  to  what  we  know  only  as  consecutive,  not 
at  all  as  causal.  Doctor  Johnson's  written  abstrac 
tions  have  little  value  :  the  tone  of  feeling  in  them 
makes  their  chief  worth. 

Mr.  Hallam,  a  learned  and  elegant  scholar,  has 
written  the  history  of  European  literature  for  three 
centuries, — a  performance  of  great  ambition,  inas 
much  as  a  judgment  was  to  be  attempted  on  every 
book.  But  his  eye  does  not  reach  to  the  ideal 
standards:  the  verdicts  are  all  dated  from  London: 
all  new  thought  must  be  cast  into  the  old  moulds. 
The  expansive  element  which  creates  literature  is 
steadily  denied.  Plato  is  resisted,  and  his  school. 
Hallam  is  uniformly  polite,  but  with  deficient  sym 
pathy  ;  writes  with  resolute  generosity,  but  is  un 
conscious  of  the  deep  worth  which  lies  in  the  mystics, 
and  which  often  outvalues  as  a  seed  of  power  and 
a  source  of  revolution  all  the  correct  writers  and 
shining  reputations  of  their  day.  He  passes  in 
silence,  or  dismisses  with  a  kind  of  contempt,  the 
profounder  masters  :  a  lover  of  ideas  is  not  only 
uncongenial,  but  unintelligible.  Hallam  inspires 
respect  by  his  knowledge  and  fidelity,  by  his  mani 
fest  love  of  good  books,  and  he  lifts  himself  to  own 
better  than  almost  any  the  greatness  of  Shakspeare, 
184 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

and  better  than  Johnson  he  appreciates  Milton.  But 
in  Hallam,  or  in  the  firmer  intellectual  nerve  of 
Mackintosh,  one  still  finds  the  same  type  of  English 
genius.  It  is  wise  and  rich,  but  it  lives  on  its  capital. 
It  is  retrospective.  How  can  it  discern  and  hail  the 
new  forms  that  are  looming  up  on  the  horizon, — 
new  and  gigantic  thoughts  which  cannot  dress  them 
selves  out  of  any  old  wardrobe  of  the  past? 

The  essays,  the  fiction,  and  the  poetry  of  the  day 
have  the  like  municipal  limits.  Dickens,  with  pre 
ternatural  apprehension  of  the  language  of  manners, 
and  the  varieties  of  street  life,  with  pathos  and 
laughter,  with  patriotic  and  still  enlarging  gene 
rosity,  writes  London  tracts.  He  is  a  painter  of 
English  details,  like  Hogarth ;  local  and  temporary 
in  his  tints  and  style,  and  local  in  his  aims.  Bulwer, 
an  industrious  writer,  with  occasional  ability,  is  dis 
tinguished  for  his  reverence  of  intellect  as  a  tem 
porality,  and  appeals  to  the  worldly  ambition  of  the 
student.  His  romances  tend  to  fan  these  low  flames. 
Their  novelists  despair  of  the  heart.  Thackeray 
finds  that  God  has  made  no  allowance  for  the  poor 
thing  in  His  universe ; — more's  the  pity,  he  thinks ; — 
but  'tis  not  for  us  to  be  wiser  :  we  must  renounce 
ideals,  and  accept  London. 

The  brilliant  Macaulay,  who  expresses  the  tone 
of  the  English  governing  classes  of  the  day,  explic 
itly  teaches  that  good  means  good  to  eat,  good  to 
wear,  material  commodity ;  that  the  glory  of  modern 
philosophy  is  its  direction  on  "  fruit " ;  to  yield 
economical  inventions  ;  and  that  its  merit  is  to 
avoid  ideas,  and  to  avoid  morals.  He  thinks  it  the 
distinctive  merit  of  the  Baconian  philosophy,  in  its 
triumph  over  the  old  Platonic,  its  disentangling  the 
intellect  from  theories  of  the  all-Fair  and  all-Good, 

185 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

and  pinning  down  to  the  making  a  better  sick 
chair  and  a  better  wine-whey  for  an  invalid  ; — this 
not  ironically,  but  in  good  faith; — that  "solid  ad 
vantage,"  as  he  calls  it,  meaning  always  sensual 
benefit,  is  the  only  good.  The  eminent  benefit  of 
astronomy  is  the  better  navigation  it  creates  to 
enable  the  fruit-ships  to  bring  home  their  lemons 
and  wine  to  the  London  grocer.  It  was  a  curious 
result,  in  which  the  civility  and  religion  of  England 
for  a  thousand  years  ends  in  denying  morals,  and 
reducing  the  intellect  to  a  sauce-pan.  The  critic 
hides  his  scepticism  under  the  English  cant  of  prac 
tical.  To  convince  the  reason,  to  touch  the  con 
science,  is  romantic  pretension.  The  fine  arts  fall 
to  the  ground.  Beauty,  except  as  luxurious  com 
modity,  does  not  exist.  It  is  very  certain,  I  may 
say  in  passing,  that  if  Lord  Bacon  had  been  only 
the  sensualist  his  critic  pretends,  he  would  never 
have  acquired  the  fame  which  now  entitles  him  to 
this  patronage.  It  is  because  he  had  imagination, 
the  leisures  of  the  spirit,  and  basked  in  an  element 
of  contemplation  out  of  all  modern  English  atmo 
spheric  gauges,  that  he  is  impressive  to  the  imagina 
tions  of  men,  and  has  become  a  potentate  not  to  be 
ignored.  Sir  David  Brewster  sees  the  high  place  of 
Bacon  without  finding  Newton  indebted  to  him, 
and  thinks  it  a  mistake.  Bacon  occupies  it  by 
specific  gravity  or  levity,  not  by  any  feat  he  did, 
or  by  any  tutoring,  more  or  less,  of  Newton,  &c., 
but  an  effect  of  the  same  cause  which  showed  itself 
more  pronounced  afterwards  in  Hooke,  Boyle,  and 
Halley. 

Coleridge,  a  catholic  mind  with  a  hunger  for 
ideas,  with  eyes  looking  before  and  after  to  the 
highest  bards  and  sages,  and  who  wrote  and  spoke 
186 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

the  only  high  criticism  in  his  time, — is  one  of  those 
who  save  England  from  the  reproach  of  no  longer 
possessing  the  capacity  to  appreciate  what  rarest 
wit  the  island  has  yielded.  Yet  the  misfortune  of 
his  life,  his  vast  attempts  but  most  inadequate  per- 
formings,  failing  to  accomplish  any  one  masterpiece, 
seems  to  mark  the  closing  of  an  era.  Even  in  him, 
the  traditional  Englishman  was  too  strong  for  the 
philosopher,  and  he  fell  into  accommodations :  and, 
as  Burke  had  striven  to  idealize  the  English  State, 
so  Coleridge  '  narrowed  his  mind  '  in  the  attempt 
to  reconcile  the  Gothic  rule  and  dogma  of  the 
Anglican  Church  with  eternal  ideas.  But  for 
Coleridge,  and  a  lurking  taciturn  minority,  utter 
ing  itself  in  occasional  criticism,  oftener  in  private 
discourse,  one  would  say  that  in  Germany  and 
in  America  is  the  best  mind  in  England  rightly 
respected.  It  is  the  surest  sign  of  national  decay, 
when  the  Bramins  can  no  longer  read  or  understand 
the  Braminical  philosophy. 

In  the  decomposition  and  asphyxia  that  followed 
all  this  materialism,  Carlyle  was  driven  by  his  dis 
gust  at  the  pettiness  and  the  cant,  into  the  preach 
ing  of  Fate.  In  comparison  with  all  this  rottenness, 
any  check,  any  cleansing,  though  by  fire,  seemed 
desirable  and  beautiful.  He  saw  little  difference 
in  the  gladiators,  or  the  "causes"  for  which  they 
combated  ;  the  one  comfort  was  that  they  were  all 
going  speedily  into  the  abyss  together:  and  his 
imagination,  finding  no  nutriment  in  any  creation, 
avenged  itself  by  celebrating  the  majestic  beauty 
of  the  laws  of  decay.  The  necessities  of  mental 
structure  force  all  minds  into  a  few  categories,  and 
where  impatience  of  the  tricks  of  men  makes  Neme 
sis  amiable,  and  builds  altars  to  the  negative  Deity, 

187 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

the  inevitable  recoil  is  to  heroism  or  the  gallantry  of 
the  private  heart,  which  decks  its  immolation  with 
glory,  in  the  unequal  combat  of  will  against  fate. 

Wilkinson,  the  editor  of  Swedenborg,  the  anno- 
tator  of  Fourier,  and  the  champion  of  Hahnemann, 
has  brought  to  metaphysics  and  to  physiology  a 
native  vigor,  with  a  catholic  perception  of  relations, 
equal  to  the  highest  attempts,  and  a  rhetoric  like 
the  armory  of  the  invincible  knights  of  old.  There 
is  in  the  action  of  his  mind  a  long  Atlantic  roll  not 
known  except  in  deepest  waters,  and  only  lacking 
what  ought  to  accompany  such  powers,  a  manifest 
centrality.  If  his  mind  does  not  rest  in  immovable 
biases,  perhaps  the  orbit  is  larger,  and  the  return  is 
not  yet :  but  a  master  should  inspire  a  confidence 
that  he  will  adhere  to  his  convictions,  and  give  his 
present  studies  always  the  same  high  place. 

It  would  be  easy  to  add  exceptions  to  the  limitary 
tone  of  English  thought,  and  much  more  easy  to 
adduce  examples  of  excellence  in  particular  veins : 
and  if,  going  out  of  the  region  of  dogma,  we  pass 
into  that  of  general  culture,  there  is  no  end  of  the 
graces  and  amenities,  wit,  sensibility,  and  erudition, 
of  the  learned  class.  But  the  artificial  succor  which 
marks  all  English  performance,  appears  in  letters 
also :  much  of  their  aesthetic  production  is  anti 
quarian  and  manufactured,  and  literary  reputations 
have  been  achieved  by  forcible  men,  whose  relation 
to  literature  was  purely  accidental,  but  who  were 
driven  by  tastes  and  modes  they  found  in  vogue 
into  their  several  careers.  So,  at  this  moment,  every 
ambitious  young  man  studies  geology  :  so  members 
of  Parliament  are  made,  and  churchmen. 

The  bias  of  Englishmen  to  practical  skill  has  re 
acted  on  the  national  mind.  They  are  incapable  of 
188 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

an  inutility,  and  respect  the  five  mechanic  powers 
even  in  their  song.  The  voice  of  their  modern  muse 
has  a  slight  hint  of  the  steam-whistle,  and  the 
poem  is  created  as  an  ornament  and  finish  of  their 
monarchy,  and  by  no  means  as  the  bird  of  a  new 
morning  which  forgets  the  past  world  in  the  full 
enjoyment  of  that  which  is  forming.  They  are  with 
difficulty  ideal ;  they  are  the  most  conditioned  men, 
as  if,  having  the  best  conditions,  they  could  not 
bring  themselves  to  forfeit  them.  Every  one  of 
them  is  a  thousand  years  old,  and  lives  by  his 
memory  :  and  when  you  say  this,  they  accept  it  as 
praise. 

Nothing  comes  to  the  book-shops  but  politics, 
travels,  statistics,  tabulation,  and  engineering,  and 
even  what  is  called  philosophy  and  letters  is  me 
chanical  in  its  structure,  as  if  inspiration  had  ceased, 
as  if  no  vast  hope,  no  religion,  no  song  of  joy,  no 
wisdom,  no  analogy,  existed  any  more.  The  tone 
of  colleges,  and  of  scholars  and  of  literary  society, 
has  this  mortal  air.  I  seem  to  walk  on  a  marble 
floor,  where  nothing  will  grow.  They  exert  every 
variety  of  talent  on  a  lower  ground,  and  may  be 
said  to  live  and  act  in  a  sub-mind.  They  have  lost 
all  commanding  views  in  literature,  philosophy,  and 
science.  A  good  Englishman  shuts  himself  out  of 
three  fourths  of  his  mind,  and  confines  himself  to 
one  fourth.  He  has  learning,  good  sense,  power  of 
labor,  and  logic  :  but  a  faith  in  the  laws  of  the  mind 
like  that  of  Archimedes  ;  a  belief  like  that  of  Euler 
and  Kepler,  that  experience  must  follow  and  not 
lead  the  laws  of  the  mind  ;  a  devotion  to  the  theory 
of  politics,  like  that  of  Hooker,  and  Milton,  and 
Harrington,  the  modern  English  mind  repudiates. 

I  fear  the  same  fault  lies  in  their  science,  since 

189 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

they  have  known  how  to  make  it  repulsive,  and 
bereave  nature  of  its  charm  ; — though  perhaps  the 
complaint  flies  wider,  and  the  vice  attaches  to  many 
more  than  to  British  physicists.  The  eye  of  the 
naturalist  must  have  a  scope  like  nature  itself,  a 
susceptibility  to  all  impressions,  alive  to  the  heart 
as  well  as  to  the  logic  of  creation.  But  English 
science  puts  humanity  to  the  door.  It  wants  the 
connection  which  is  the  test  of  genius.  The  science 
is  false  by  not  being  poetic.  It  isolates  the  reptile 
or  mollusk  it  assumes  to  explain ;  whilst  reptile  or 
mollusk  only  exists  in  system,  in  relation.  The 
poet  only  sees  it  as  an  inevitable  step  in  the  path 
of  the  Creator.  But,  in  England,  one  hermit  finds 
this  fact,  and  another  finds  that,  and  lives  and 
dies  ignorant  of  its  value.  There  are  great  excep 
tions,  of  John  Hunter,  a  man  of  ideas;  perhaps  of 
Robert  Brown,  the  botanist ;  and  of  Richard  Owen, 
who  has  imported  into  Britain  the  German  homo- 
logies,  and  enriched  science  with  contributions  of 
his  own,  adding  sometimes  the  divination  of  the 
old  masters  to  the  unbroken  power  of  labor  in  the 
English  mind.  But  for  the  most  part,  the  natural 
science  in  England  is  out  of  its  loyal  alliance  with 
morals,  and  is  as  void  of  imagination  and  free  play 
of  thought  as  conveyancing.  It  stands  in  strong 
contrast  with  the  genius  of  the  Germans,  those 
semi-Greeks,  who  love  analogy,  and,  by  means  of 
their  height  of  view,  preserve  their  enthusiasm,  and 
think  for  Europe. 

No  hope,  no  sublime  augury,  cheers  the  student, 
no  secure  striding  from  experiment  onward  to  a 
foreseen  law,  but  only  a  casual  dipping  here  and 
there,  like  diggers  in  California  "prospecting  for 
a  placer"  that  will  pay.  A  horizon  of  brass  of 
190 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

the  diameter  of  his  umbrella  shuts  down  around 
his  senses.  Squalid  contentment  with  conventions, 
satire  at  the  names  of  philosophy  and  religion,  paro 
chial  and  shop-till  politics,  and  idolatry  of  usage, 
betray  the  ebb  of  life  and  spirit.  As  they  trample 
onnationalities  to  reproduce Londonand Londoners 
in  Europe  and  Asia,  so  they  fear  the  hostility  of 
ideas,  of  poetry,  of  religion, — ghosts  which  they 
cannot  lay  ; — and,  having  attempted  to  domesticate 
and  dress  the  Blessed  Soul  itself  in  English  broad 
cloth  and  gaiters,  they  are  tormented  with  fear  that 
herein  lurks  a  force  that  will  sweep  their  system 
away.  The  artists  say,  "Nature  puts  them  out;" 
the  scholars  have  become  un-ideal.  They  parry 
earnest  speech  with  banter  and  levity  ;  they  laugh 
you  down,  or  they  change  the  subject.  "The  fact 
is,"  say  they,  over  their  wine,  "all  that  about  liberty, 
and  so  forth,  is  gone  by ;  it  won't  do  any  longer." 
The  practical  and  comfortable  oppress  them  with 
inexorable  claims,  and  the  smallestfraction  of  power 
remains  for  heroism  and  poetry.  No  poet  dares 
murmur  of  beauty  out  of  the  precinct  of  his  rhymes. 
No  priest  dares  hint  at  a  Providence  which  does 
not  respect  English  utility.  The  island  is  a  roaring 
volcano  of  fate,  of  material  values,  of  tariffs,  and 
laws  of  repression,  glutted  markets,  and  low  prices. 
In  the  absence  of  the  highest  aims,  of  the  pure 
love  of  knowledge,  and  the  surrender  to  nature, 
there  is  the  suppression  of  the  imagination,  the 
priapism  of  the  senses  and  the  understanding  ;  we 
have  the  factitious  instead  of  the  natural ;  tasteless 
expense,  arts  of  comfort,  and  the  rewarding  as  an 
illustrious  inventor  whosoever  will  contrive  one 
impediment  more  to  interpose  between  the  man 
and  his  objects. 

191. 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

Thus  poetry  is  degraded,  and  made  ornamental. 
Pope  and  his  school  wrote  poetry  fit  to  put  round 
frosted  cake.  What  did  Walter  Scott  write  with 
out  stint?  a  rhymed  traveller's  guide  to  Scotland. 
And  the  libraries  of  verses  they  print  have  this 
Birmingham  character.  How  many  volumes  of  well- 
bred  metre  we  must  gingle  through,  before  we  can 
be  filled,  taught,  renewed !  We  want  the  miraculous ; 
the  beauty  which  we  can  manufacture  at  no  mill, — 
can  give  no  account  of;  the  beauty  of  which  Chaucer 
and  Chapman  had  the  secret.  The  poetry  of  course 
is  low  and  prosaic ;  only  now  and  then,  as  in  Words 
worth,  conscientious ;  or  in  Byron,  passional,  or  in 
Tennyson,  factitious.  But  if  I  should  count  the 
poets  who  have  contributed  to  the  bible  of  exist 
ing  England  sentences  of  guidance  and  consolation 
which  are  still  glowing  and  effective, — how  few  ! 
Shall  I  find  my  heavenly  bread  in  the  reigning 
poets?  Where  is  great  design  in  modern  English 
poetry  ?  The  English  have  lost  sight  of  the  fact 
that  poetry  exists  to  speak  the  spiritual  law,  and 
that  no  wealth  of  description  or  of  fancy  is  yet 
essentially  new,  and  out  of  the  limits  of  prose,  until 
this  condition  is  reached.  Therefore  the  grave  old 
poets,  like  the  Greek  artists,  heeded  their  designs, 
and  less  considered  the  finish.  It  was  their  office 
to  lead  to  the  divine  sources,  out  of  which  all  this, 
and  much  more,  readily  springs;  and,  if  this  religion 
is  in  the  poetry,  it  raises  us  to  some  purpose,  and 
we  can  well  afford  some  staidness,  or  hardness,  or 
want  of  popular  tune  in  the  verses. 

The  exceptional  fact  of  the  period  is  the  genius 
of  Wordsworth.  He  had  no  master  but  nature  and 
solitude.  "  I  le  wrote  a  poem,"  says  Landor,  "  with 
out  the  aid  of  war."  His  verse  is  the  voice  of  sanity 
192 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

in  a  worldly  and  ambitious  age.  One  regrets  that 
his  temperament  was  not  more  liquid  and  musical. 
He  has  written  longer  than  he  was  inspired.  But 
for  the  rest,  he  has  no  competitor. 

Tennyson  is  endowed  precisely  in  points  where 
Wordsworth  wanted.  There  is  no  finer  ear,  nor 
more  command  of  the  keys  of  language.  Color, 
like  the  dawn,  flows  over  the  horizon  from  his 
pencil,  in  waves  so  rich  that  we  do  not  miss  the 
central  form.  Through  all  his  refinements,  too,  he 
has  reached  the  public, — a  certificate  of  good  sense 
and  general  power,  since  he  who  aspires  to  be  the 
English  poet  must  be  as  large  as  London,  not  in  the 
same  kind  as  London,  but  in  his  own  kind.  But  he 
wants  a  subject,  and  climbs  no  mount  of  vision  to 
bring  its  secrets  to  the  people.  He  contents  himself 
with  describing  the  Englishman  as  he  is,  and  pro 
poses  no  better.  There  are  all  degrees  in  poetry, 
and  we  must  be  thankful  for  every  beautiful  talent. 
But  it  is  only  a  first  success,  when  the  ear  is  gained. 
The  best  office  of  the  best  poets  has  been  to  show 
how  low  and  uninspired  was  their  general  style,  and 
that  only  once  or  twice  they  have  struck  the  high 
chord. 

That  expansiveness  which  is  the  essence  of  the 
poetic  element,  they  have  not.  It  was  no  Oxonian, 
but  Hafiz,  who  said,  "Let  us  be  crowned  with  roses, 
let  us  drink  wine,  and  break  up  the  tiresome  old 
roof  of  heaven  into  new  forms."  A  stanza  of  the 
song  of  nature  the  Oxonian  has  no  ear  for,  and  he 
does  not  value  the  salient  and  curative  influence 
of  intellectual  action,  studious  of  truth,  without  a 
by-end. 

By  the  law  of  contraries,  I  look  for  an  irresistible 

taste  for  Orientalism  in  Britain.  For  a  self-conceited 

n  193 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

modish  life,  made  up  of  trifles,  clinging  to  a  corporeal 
civilization,  hating  ideas,  there  is  no  remedy  like  the 
Oriental  largeness.  That  astonishes  and  disconcerts 
English  decorum.  For  once  there  is  thunder  it  never 
heard,  light  it  never  saw,  and  power  which  trifles 
with  time  and  space.  I  am  not  surprised,  then,  to 
find  an  Englishman  like  Warren  Hastings,  who  had 
been  struck  with  the  grand  style  of  thinking  in  the 
Indian  writings,  deprecating  the  prejudices  of  his 
countrymen,  while  offering  them  a  translation  of 
the  Bhagvat.  "  Might  I,  an  unlettered  man,  venture 
to  prescribe  bounds  to  the  latitude  of  criticism,  I 
should  exclude,  in  estimating  the  merit  of  such  a 
production,  all  rules  drawn  from  the  ancient  or 
modern  literature  of  Europe,  all  references  to  such 
sentiments  or  manners  as  are  become  the  standards 
of  propriety  for  opinion  and  action  in  our  own  modes, 
and,  equally,  all  appeals  to  our  revealed  tenets  of 
religion  and  moral  duty." l  He  goes  on  to  bespeak 
indulgence  to  "ornaments  of  fancy  unsuited  to  our 
taste,  and  passages  elevated  to  a  tract  of  sublimity 
into  which  our  habits  of  judgment  will  find  it  difficult 
to  pursue  them." 

Meantime,  I  know  that  a  retrieving  power  lies  in 
the  English  race,  which  seems  to  make  any  recoil 
possible ;  in  other  words,  there  is  at  all  times  a 
minority  of  profound  minds  existing  in  the  nation, 
capable  of  appreciating  every  soaring  of  intellect 
and  ev  ery  hint  of  tendency.  While  the  constructive 
talent  seems  dwarfed  and  superficial,  the  criticism 
is  often  in  the  noblest  tone,  and  suggests  the  presence 
of  the  invisible  gods.  I  can  well  believe  what  I 
have  often  heard,  that  there  are  two  nations  in 
England  ;  but  it  is  not  the  Poor  and  the  Rich;  nor 
is  it  the  Normans  and  Saxons ;  nor  the  Gelt  and 
194 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

the  Goth.  These  are  each  always  becoming  the 
other;  for  Robert  Owen  does  not  exaggerate  the 
power  of  circumstance.  But  the  two  complexions, 
or  two  styles  of  mind, — the  perceptive  class,  and  the 
practical  finality  class, — are  ever  in  counterpoise, 
interacting  mutually ;  one,  in  hopeless  minorities ; 
the  other,  in  huge  masses ;  one  studious,  contem 
plative,  experimenting  ;  the  other,  the  ungrateful 
pupil,  scornful  of  the  source,  whilst  availing  itself 
of  the  knowledge  for  gain;  these  two  nations,  of 
genius  and  of  animal  force,  though  the  first  consist 
of  only  a  dozen  souls,  and  the  second  of  twenty 
millions,  forever  by  their  discord  and  their  accord 
yield  the  power  of  the  English  State. 


NOTE 
1  Preface  to  Wilkinss  translation  of  the  Bhagvat  Geeta. 


195 


CHAPTER  XV.   THE  "TIMES" 

F  H  ^HE  power  of  the  newspaper  is  familiar 
in  America,  and  in  accordance  with  our 
political  system.  In  England,  it  stands 
JL  in  antagonism  with  the  feudal  institu 
tions,  and  it  is  all  the  more  beneficent  succor  against 
the  secretive  tendencies  of  a  monarchy.  The  cele 
brated  Lord  Somers  "knew  of  no  good  law  pro 
posed  and  passed  in  his  time,  to  which  the  public 
papers  had  not  directed  his  attention."  There  is  no 
corner  and  no  night.  A  relentless  inquisition  drags 
every  secret  to  the  day,  turns  the  glare  of  this  solar 
microscope  on  every  malfaisance,  so  as  to  make  the 
public  a  more  terrible  spy  than  any  foreigner ;  and 
no  weakness  can  be  taken  advantage  of  by  an  enemy, 
since  the  whole  people  are  already  forewarned. 
Thus  England  rids  herself  of  those  incrustations 
which  have  been  the  ruin  of  old  states.  Of  course, 
this  inspection  is  feared.  No  antique  privilege,  no 
comfortable  monopoly,  but  sees  surely  that  its  days 
are  counted ;  the  people  are  familiarized  with  the 
reason  of  reform,  and,  one  by  one,  take  away  every 
argument  of  the  obstructives.  "  So  your  grace  likes 
the  comfort  of  reading  the  newspapers,"  said  Lord 
Mansfield  to  the  Duke  of  Northumberland ;  "  mark 
my  words ;  you  and  I  shall  not  live  to  see  it,  but 
this  young  gentleman  (Lord  Eldon)  may,  or  it  may 
be  a  little  later ;  but  a  little  sooner  or  later,  these 
newspapers  will  most  assuredly  write  the  dukes  of 
Northumberland  out  of  their  titles  and  possessions, 
and  the  country  out  of  its  king."  The  tendency  in 
England  towards  social  and  political  institutions 
like  those  of  America,  is  inevitable,  and  the  ability 
of  its  journals  is  the  driving  force. 

England  is  full  of  manly,  clever,  well-bred  men 

197 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

who  possess  the  talent  of  writing  off-hand  pungent 
paragraphs,  expressing  with  clearness  and  courage 
their  opinion  on  any  person  or  performance.  Valu 
able  or  not,  it  is  a  skill  that  is  rarely  found,  out 
of  the  English  journals.  The  English  do  this,  as 
they  write  poetry,  as  they  ride  and  box,  by  being 
educated  to  it.  Hundreds  of  clever  Praeds,  and 
Freres,  and  Froudes,  and  Hoods,  and  Hooks,  and 
Maginns,  and  Mills,  and  Macaulays,  make  poems 
or  short  essays  for  a  journal,  as  they  make  speeches 
in  Parliament  and  on  the  hustings,  or  as  they  shoot 
and  ride.  It  is  a  quite  accidental  and  arbitrary 
direction  of  their  general  ability.  Rude  health 
and  spirits,  an  Oxford  education,  and  the  habits 
of  society  are  implied,  but  not  a  ray  of  genius. 
It  comes  of  the  crowded  state  of  the  professions, 
the  violent  interest  which  all  men  take  in  politics, 
the  facility  of  experimenting  in  the  journals,  and 
high  pay. 

The  most  conspicuous  result  of  this  talent  is  the 
"  Times  "  newspaper.  No  power  in  England  is  more 
felt,  more  feared,  or  more  obeyed.  What  you  read 
in  the  morning  in  that  journal,  you  shall  hear  in  the 
evening  in  all  society.  It  has  ears  everywhere,  and 
its  information  is  earliest,  completes!,  and  surest.  It 
has  risen,  year  by  year,  and  victory  by  victory,  to 
its  present  authority.  I  asked  one  of  its  old  con 
tributors,  whether  it  had  once  been  abler  than  it  is 
now?  "Never,"  he  said;  "these  are  its  palmiest 
days."  It  has  shown  those  qualities  which  are 
dear  to  Englishmen,  unflinching  adherence  to  its 
objects,  prodigal  intellectual  ability,  and  a  tower 
ing  assurance,  backed  by  the  perfect  organization 
in  its  printing-house,  and  its  world-wide  network 
of  correspondence  and  reports.  It  has  its  own 
198 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

history  and  famous  trophies.  In  1820,  it  adopted 
the  cause  of  Queen  Caroline,  and  carried  it  against 
the  king.  It  adopted  a  poor-law  system,  and  almost 
alone  lifted  it  through.  When  Lord  Brougham  was 
in  power,  it  decided  against  him,  and  pulled  him 
down.  It  declared  war  against  Ireland,  and  con 
quered  it.  It  adopted  the  League  against  the  Corn 
Laws,  and,  when  Cobden  had  begun  to  despair,  it 
announced  his  triumph.  It  denounced  and  dis 
credited  the  French  Republic  of  1848,  and  checked 
every  sympathy  with  it  in  England,  until  it  had 
enrolled  200,000  special  constables  to  watch  the 
Chartists,  and  make  them  ridiculous  on  the  10th 
April.  It  first  denounced  and  then  adopted  the  new 
French  Empire,  and  urged  the  French  Alliance 
and  its  results.  It  has  entered  into  each  municipal, 
literary,  and  social  question,  almost  with  a  control 
ling  voice.  It  has  done  bold  and  seasonable  service 
in  exposing  frauds  which  threatened  the  commer 
cial  community.  Meantime,  it  attacks  its  rivals  by 
perfecting  its  printing  machinery,  and  will  drive 
them  out  of  circulation:  for  the  only  limit  to  the 
circulation  of  the  "  Times  "  is  the  impossibility  of 
printing  copies  fast  enough  ;  since  a  daily  paper  can 
only  be  new  and  seasonable  for  a  few  hours.  It 
will  kill  all  but  that  paper  which  is  diametrically  in 
opposition ;  since  many  papers,  first  and  last,  have 
lived  by  their  attacks  on  the  leading  journal. 

The  late  Mr.  Walter  was  printer  of  the  "  Times," 
and  had  gradually  arranged  the  whole  materiel  of 
it  in  perfect  system.  It  is  told  that  when  he  de 
manded  a  small  share  in  the  proprietary,  and  was 
refused,  he  said,  "  As  you  please,  gentlemen  ;  and 
you  may  take  away  the  '  Times '  from  this  office, 
when  you  will ;  I  shall  publish  the  '  New  Times/ 

199 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

next  Monday  morning."  The  proprietors,  who  had 
already  complained  that  his  charges  for  printing 
were  excessive,  found  that  they  were  in  his  power, 
and  gave  him  whatever  he  wished. 

I  went  one  day  with  a  good  friend  to  the  "  Times  " 
office,  which  was  entered  through  a  pretty  garden- 
yard,  in  Printing-House  Square.  We  walked  with 
some  circumspection,  as  if  we  were  entering  a 
powder-mill ;  but  the  door  was  opened  by  a  mild 
old  woman,  and,  by  dint  of  some  transmission  of 
cards,  we  were  at  last  conducted  into  the  parlor 
of  Mr.  Morris,  a  very  gentle  person,  with  no  hostile 
appearances.  The  statistics  are  now  quite  out  of 
date,  but  I  remember  he  told  us  that  the  daily  print 
ing  was  then  35,000  copies ;  that  on  the  1st  March, 
1848,  the  greatest  number  ever  printed, — 54,000 
were  issued  ;  that  since  February,  the  daily  circula 
tion  had  increased  by  8000  copies.  The  old  press 
they  were  then  using  printed  five  or  six  thousand 
sheets  per  hour;  the  new  machine,  for  which  they 
were  then  building  an  engine,  would  print  twelve 
thousand  per  hour.  Our  entertainer  confided  us 
to  a  courteous  assistant  to  show  us  the  establish 
ment,  in  which,  I  think,  they  employed  a  hundred 
and  twenty  men.  I  remember  I  saw  the  reporters' 
room,  in  which  they  redact  their  hasty  stenographs, 
but  the  editor's  room,  and  who  is  in  it,  I  did  not 
see,  though  I  shared  the  curiosity  of  mankind 
respecting  it. 

The  staff  of  the  "Times"  has  always  been  made 
upof  able  men.  Old  Walter,  Sterling,  Bacon,  Barnes, 
Alsiger,  Horace  Twiss,  Jones  Loyd,  John  Oxen- 
ford,  Mr.  Moseley,  Mr.  Bailey,  have  contributed  to 
its  renown  in  their  special  departments.  But  it  has 
never  wanted  the  first  pens  for  occasional  assist- 
200 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

ance.  Its  private  information  is  inexplicable,  and 
recalls  the  stories  of  Fouche's  police,  whose  omni 
science  made  it  believed  that  the  Empress  Josephine 
must  be  in  his  pay.  It  has  mercantile  and  political 
correspondents  in  every  foreign  city ;  and  its  ex 
presses  outrun  the  despatches  of  the  government. 
One  hears  anecdotes  of  the  rise  of  its  servants,  as 
of  the  functionaries  of  the  India  House.  I  was  told 
of  the  dexterity  of  one  of  its  reporters,  who,  finding 
himself,  on  one  occasion,  where  the  magistrates  had 
strictly  forbidden  reporters,  put  his  hands  into  his 
coat-pocket,  and  with  pencil  in  one  hand,  and  tablet 
in  the  other,  did  his  work. 

The  influence  of  this  journal  is  a  recognised  power 
in  Europe,  and,  of  course,  none  is  more  conscious 
of  it  than  its  conductors.  The  tone  of  its  articles  has 
often  been  the  occasion  of  comment  from  the  official 
organs  of  the  continental  courts,  and  sometimes  the 
ground  of  diplomatic  complaint.  What  would  the 
"  Times  "  say  ?  is  a  terror  in  Paris,  in  Berlin,  in 
Vienna,  in  Copenhagen,  and  in  Nepaul.  Its  con 
summate  discretion  and  success  exhibit  the  English 
skill  of  combination.  The  daily  paper  is  the  work 
of  many  hands,  chiefly,  it  is  said,  of  young  men  re 
cently  from  the  University,  and  perhaps  reading 
law  in  chambers  in  London.  Hence  the  academic 
elegance,  and  classic  allusion,  which  adorn  its 
columns.  Hence,  too,  the  heat  and  gallantry  of  its 
onset.  But  the  steadiness  of  the  aim  suggests  the 
belief  that  this  fire  is  directed  and  fed  by  older 
engineers  ;  as  if  persons  of  exact  information,  and 
with  settled  views  of  policy,  supplied  the  writers 
with  the  basis  of  fact,  and  the  object  to  be  attained, 
and  availed  themselves  of  their  younger  energy 
and  eloquence  to  plead  the  cause.  Both  the  council 

201 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

and  the  executive  departments  gain  by  this  divi 
sion.  Of  two  men  of  equal  ability,  the  one  who 
does  not  write,  but  keeps  his  eye  on  the  course  of 
public  affairs,  will  have  the  higher  judicial  wis 
dom.  But  the  parts  are  kept  in  concert;  all  the 
articles  appear  to  proceed  from  a  single  will.  The 
"Times"  never  disapproves  of  what  itself  has  said 
or  cripples  itself  by  apology  for  the  absence  of  the 
editor,  or  the  indiscretion  of  him  who  held  the  pen. 
It  speaks  out  bluff  and  bold,  and  sticks  to  what  it 
says.  It  draws  from  any  number  of  learned  and 
skilful  contributors  ;  but  a  more  learned  and  skilful 
person  supervises,  corrects,  and  coordinates.  Of 
this  closet,  the  secret  does  not  transpire.  No  writer 
is  suffered  to  claim  the  authorship  of  any  paper; 
everything  good,  from  whatever  quarter,  comes  out 
editorially  ;  and  thus,  by  making  the  paper  every 
thing,  and  those  who  wrriteit  nothing,  the  character 
and  the  awe  of  the  journal  gain. 

The  English  like  it  for  its  complete  information. 
A  statement  of  fact  in  the  "  Times  "  is  as  reliable  as 
a  citation  from  Hansard.  Then  they  like  its  inde 
pendence  ;  they  do  not  know,  when  they  take  it  up, 
what  their  paper  is  going  to  say  :  but,  above  all,  for 
the  nationality  and  confidence  of  its  tone.  It  thinks 
for  them  all;  it  is  their  understanding  and  day's 
ideal  daguerreotyped.  When  I  see  them  reading 
its  columns,  they  seem  to  me  becoming  every 
moment  more  British.  It  has  the  national  courage, 
not  rash  and  petulant,  but  considerate  and  deter 
mined.  No  dignity  or  wealth  is  a  shield  from  its 
assault.  It  attacks  a  duke  as  readily  as  a  policeman, 
and  with  the  most  provoking  airs  of  condescension. 
It  makes  rude  work  with  the  Board  of  Admiralty. 
The  Bench  of  Bishops  is  still  less  safe.  One  bishop 
202 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

fares  badly  for  his  rapacity,  and  another  for  his 
bigotry,  and  a  third  for  his  courtliness.  It  addresses 
occasionally  a  hint  to  Majesty  itself,  and  sometimes 
a  hint  which  is  taken.  There  is  an  air  of  freedom 
even  in  their  advertising  columns,  which  speaks 
well  for  England  to  a  foreigner.  On  the  days  when 
I  arrived  in  London  in  1847,  I  read  among  the 
daily  announcements,  one  offering  a  reward  of  fifty 
pounds  to  any  person  who  would  put  a  noble 
man,  described  by  name  and  title,  late  a  member 
of  Parliament,  into  any  county  jail  in  England,  he 
having  been  convicted  of  obtaining  money  under 
false  pretences. 

Was  never  such  arrogancy  as  the  tone  of  this 
paper.  Every  slip  of  an  Oxonian  or  Cantabrigian, 
who  writes  his  first  leader,  assumes  that  we  subdued 
the  earth  before  we  sat  down  to  write  this  particular 
Times."  One  would  think,  the  world  was  on  its 
knees  to  the  "  Times "  Office,  for  its  daily  break 
fast,  but  this  arrogance  is  calculated.  Who  would 
care  for  it  if  it  "  surmised,"  or  "dared  to  confess," 
or  "ventured  to  predict,"  &c.  No ;  it  is  so,  and  so 
it  shall  be. 

The  morality  and  patriotism  of  the  "Times" 
claims  only  to  be  representative,  and  by  no  means 
ideal.  It  gives  the  argument,  not  of  the  majority, 
but  of  the  commanding  class.  Its  editors  know  better 
than  to  defend  Russia,  or  Austria,  or  English  vested 
rights,  on  abstract  grounds.  But  they  give  a  voice 
to  the  class  who,  at  the  moment,  take  the  lead  ;  and 
they  have  an  instinct  for  finding  where  the  power 
now  lies,  which  is  eternally  shifting  its  banks.  Sym 
pathizing  with  and  speaking  for  the  class  that  rules 
the  hour,  yet  being  apprised  of  every  ground-swell, 
every  Chartist  resolution,  every  Church  squabble, 

203 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

every  strike  in  the  mills,  they  detect  the  first  trem 
blings  of  change.  They  watch  the  hard  and  bitter 
struggles  of  the  authors  of  each  liberal  movement, 
year  by  year, — watching  them  only  to  taunt  and 
obstruct  them, — until,  at  last,  when  they  see  that 
these  have  established  their  fact,  that  power  is  on 
the  point  of  passing  to  them, — they  strike  in,  with 
the  voice  of  a  monarch,  astonish  those  whom  they 
succor,  as  much  as  those  whom  they  desert,  and 
make  victory  sure.  Of  course,  the  aspirants  see  that 
the  "Times"  is  one  of  the  goods  of  fortune,  not  to 
be  won  but  by  winning  their  cause. 

"  Punch  "  is  equally  an  expression  of  English  good 
sense,  as  the  "  London  Times."  It  is  the  comic  ver 
sion  of  the  same  sense.  Many  of  its  caricatures  are 
equal  to  the  best  pamphlets,  and  will  convey  to  the 
eye  in  an  instant  the  popular  view  which  was  taken 
of  each  turn  of  public  affairs.  Its  sketches  are  usually 
made  by  masterly  hands, andsometimes  with  genius; 
the  delight  of  every  class,  because  uniformly  guided 
by  that  taste  which  is  tyrannical  in  England.  It  is 
a  new  trait  of  the  nineteenth  century  that  the  wit 
and  humor  of  England,  as  in  "  Punch,"  so  in  the 
humorists,  Jerrold,  Dickens, Thackeray,  Hood, have 
taken  the  direction  of  humanity  and  freedom. 

The  "Times,"  like  every  important  institution, 
shows  the  way  to  a  better.  It  is  a  living  index  of 
the  colossal  British  power.  Its  existence  honors  the 
people  who  dare  to  print  all  they  know,  dare  to 
know  all  the  facts,  and  do  not  wish  to  be  flattered 
by  hiding  the  extent  of  the  public  disaster.  There 
is  always  safety  in  valor.  I  wish  I  could  add  that 
this  journal  aspired  to  deserve  the  power  it  wields, 
by  guidance  of  the  public  sentiment  to  the  right. 
It  is  usually  pretended,  in  Parliament  and  else- 
204 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

where,  that  the  English  press  has  a  high  tone, — 
which  it  has  not.  It  has  an  imperial  tone,  as  of  a 
powerful  and  independent  nation.  But  as  with  other 
empires,  its  tone  is  prone  to  be  official,  and  even 
officinal.  The  "Times"  shares  all  the  limitations  of 
the  governing  classes,  and  wishes  never  to  be  in  a 
minority.  If  only  it  dared  to  cleave  to  the  right,  to 
show  the  right  to  be  the  only  expedient,  and  feed 
its  batteries  from  the  central  heart  of  humanity,  it 
might  not  have  so  many  men  of  rank  among  its  con 
tributors,  but  genius  would  be  its  cordial  and  invin 
cible  ally  ;  it  might  now  and  then  bear  the  brunt 
of  formidable  combinations,  but  no  journal  is  ruined 
by  wise  courage.  It  would  be  the  natural  leader 
of  British  reform;  its  proud  function,  that  of  being 
the  voice  of  Europe,  the  defender  of  the  exile  and 
patriot  against  despots,  would  be  more  effectually 
discharged ;  it  would  have  the  authority  which  is 
claimed  for  that  dream  of  good  men  not  yet  come 
to  pass,  an  International  Congress  ;  and  the  least  of 
its  victories  would  be  to  give  to  England  a  new 
millennium  of  beneficent  power. 


205 


CHAPTER  XVI.   STONEHENGE 

IT  had  been  agreed  between  my  friend  Mr.  G. 
and  me,  that  before  I  left  England  we  should 
make  an  excursion  together  to  Stonehenge, 
which  neither  of  us  had  seen ;  and  the  pro 
ject  pleased  my  fancy  with  the  double  attraction 
of  the  monument  and  the  companion.  It  seemed 
a  bringing  together  of  extreme  points,  to  visit  the 
oldest  religious  monument  in  Britain,  in  company 
with  her  latest  thinker,  and  one  whose  influence  may 
be  traced  in  every  contemporary  book.  I  was  glad 
to  sum  up  a  little  my  experiences,  and  to  exchange 
a  few  reasonable  words  on  the  aspects  of  England, 
with  a  man  on  whose  genius  I  set  a  very  high  value, 
and  who  had  as  much  penetration,  and  as  severe  a 
theory  of  duty,  as  any  person  in  it.  On  Friday, 
7th  July,  we  took  the  South  Western  Railway 
through  Hampshire  to  Salisbury,  where  we  found 
a  carriage  to  convey  us  to  Amesbury.  The  fine 
weather  and  my  friend's  local  knowledge  of  Hamp 
shire,  in  which  he  is  wont  to  spend  a  part  of  every 
summer,  made  the  way  short.  There  was  much 
to  say,  too,  of  the  travelling  Americans,  and  their 
usual  objects  in  London.  I  thought  it  natural  that 
they  should  give  some  time  to  works  of  art  collected 
here,  which  they  cannot  find  at  home,  and  a  little 
to  scientific  clubs  and  museums,  which,  at  this 
moment,  make  London  very  attractive.  But  my 
philosopher  was  not  contented.  Art  and  high  art* 
is  a  favorite  target  for  his  wit.  "Yes,  Kunst  is  a 
great  delusion,  and  Goethe  and  Schiller  wasted  a 
great  deal  of  good  time  on  it :" — and  he  thinks  he 
discovers  that  old  Goethe  found  this  out,  and,  in  his 
later  writings,  changed  his  tone.  As  soon  as  men 
begin  to  talk  of  art,  architecture,  and  antiquities, 

207 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

nothing  good  conies  of  it.  He  wishes  to  go  through 
the  British  Museum  in  silence,  and  thinks  a  sincere 
man  will  see  something,  and  say  nothing.  In  these 
days,  he  thought,  it  would  become  an  architect  to 
consult  only  the  grim  necessity,  and  say,  '  I  can 
build  you  a  coffin  for  such  dead  persons  as  you  are, 
and  for  such  dead  purposes  as  you  have,  but  you 
shall  have  no  ornament.'  For  the  science,  he  had, 
if  possible,  even  less  tolerance,  and  compared  the 
savants  of  Somerset  House  to  the  boy  who  asked 
Confucius  "how  many  stars  in  the  sky?"  Con 
fucius  replied,  "  he  minded  things  near  him  : "  then 
said  the  boy,  "  how  many  hairs  are  there  in  your 
eyebrows  ?"  Confucius  said,  "  he  didn't  know  and 
didn't  care." 

Still  speaking  of  the  Americans,  C.  complained 
that  they  dislike  the  coldness  and  exclusiveness  of 
the  English,  and  run  away  to  France,  and  go  with 
their  countrymen,  and  are  amused,  instead  of  man 
fully  staying  in  London,  and  confronting  English 
men,  and  acquiring  their  culture,  who  really  have 
much  to  teach  them. 

I  told  C.  that  I  was  easily  dazzled,  and  was  accus 
tomed  to  concede  readily  all  that  an  Englishman 
would  ask  ;  I  saw  everywhere  in  the  country  proofs 
of  sense  and  spirit,  and  success  of  every  sort :  I  like 
the  people  :  they  are  as  good  as  they  are  handsome  ; 
they  have  everything,  and  can  do  everything :  but 
meantime,  I  surely  know  that,  as  soon  as  I  return 
to  Massachusetts,  I  shall  lapse  at  once  into  the  feel 
ing,  which  the  geography  of  America  inevitably 
inspires,  that  we  play  the  game  with  immense  ad 
vantage  ;  that  there  and  not  here  is  the  seat  and 
centre  of  the  British  race  ;  and  that  no  skill  or  ac 
tivity  can  long  compete  with  the  prodigious  natural 
208 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

advantages  of  that  country,  in  the  hands  of  the  same 
race ;  and  that  England,  an  old  and  exhausted  island, 
must  one  day  be  contented,  like  other  parents,  to 
be  strong  only  in  her  children.  But  this  was  a  pro 
position  which  no  Englishman  of  whatever  condition 
can  easily  entertain. 

We  left  the  train  at  Salisbury,  and  took  a  carriage 
to  Amesbury,  passing  by  Old  Sarum,  a  bare,  tree 
less  hill,  once  containing  the  town  which  sent  two 
members  to  Parliament, — now,  not  a  hut ; — and, 
arriving  at  Amesbury,  stopped  at  the  George  Inn. 
After  dinner,  we  walked  to  Salisbury  Plain.  On 
the  broad  downs,  under  the  gray  sky,  not  a  house 
was  visible,  nothing  but  Stonehenge,  which  looked 
like  a  group  of  brown  dwarfs  in  the  wide  expanse, — 
Stonehenge  and  the  barrows, — which  rose  like  green 
bosses  about  the  plain,  and  a  few  hayricks.  On  the 
top  of  a  mountain,  the  old  temple  would  not  be 
more  impressive.  Far  and  wide  a  few  shepherds 
with  their  flocks  sprinkled  the  plain,  and  a  bagman 
drove  along  the  road.  It  looked  as  if  the  wide  mar 
gin  given  in  this  crowded  isle  to  this  primeval  temple 
were  accorded  by  the  veneration  of  the  British  race 
to  the  old  egg  out  of  which  all  their  ecclesiastical 
structures  and  history  had  proceeded.  Stonehenge 
is  a  circular  colonnade  with  a  diameter  of  a  hundred 
feet,  and  enclosing  a  second  and  third  colonnade 
within.  We  walked  round  the  stones,  and  clambered 
over  them,  to  wont  ourselves  with  their  strange 
aspect  and  groupings,  and  found  a  nook  sheltered 
from  the  wind  among  them,  where  C.  lighted  his 
cigar.  It  was  pleasant  to  see  that  just  this  simplest 
of  all  simple  structures, — two  upright  stones  and 
a  lintel  laid  across, — had  long  outstood  all  later 
churches,  and  all  history,  and  were  like  what  is 
o  209 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

most  permanent  on  the  face  of  the  planet :  these, 
and  the  barrows, — mere  mounds  (of  which  there 
are  a  hundred  and  sixty  within  a  circle  of  three 
miles  about  Stonehenge),  like  the  same  mound  on 
the  plain  of  Troy,  which  still  makes  good  to  the 
passing  mariner  on  Hellespont  the  vaunt  of  Homer 
and  the  fame  of  Achilles.  Within  the  enclosure, 
grow  buttercups,  nettles,  and,  all  around,  wild 
thyme,  daisy,  meadowsweet,  goldenrod,  thistle,  and 
the  carpeting  grass.  Over  us,  larks  were  soaring 
and  singing, — as  my  friend  said,  "the  larks  which 
were  hatched  last  year,  and  the  wind  which  was 
hatched  many  thousand  years  ago."  We  counted 
and  measured  by  paces  the  biggest  stones,  and  soon 
knew  as  much  as  any  man  can  suddenly  know 
of  the  inscrutable  temple.  There  are  ninety-four 
stones,  and  there  were  once  probably  one  hundred 
and  sixty.  The  temple  is  circular,  and  uncovered, 
and  the  situation  fixed  astronomically, — the  grand 
entrances  here,  and  at  Abury,  being  placed  exactly 
northeast,  'as  all  the  gates  of  the  old  cavern  temples 
are."  How  came  the  stones  here  ?  for  these  sarsens, 
or  Druidical  sandstones,  are  not  found  in  this  neigh 
borhood.  The  sacrificial  stone,  as  it  is  called,  is  the 
only  one  in  all  these  blocks,  that  can  resist  the 
action  of  fire,  and  as  I  read  in  the  books,  must  have 
been  brought  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles. 

On  almost  every  stone  we  found  the  marks  of  the 
mineralogist's  hammer  and  chisel.  The  nineteen 
smaller  stones  of  the  inner  circle  are  of  granite.  I, 
who  had  just  come  from  Professor  Sedgwick's  Cam 
bridge  Museum  of  megathcria  and  mastodons,  was 
ready  to  maintain  that  some  cleverer  elephants  or 
mylodonta  had  borne  ofF  and  laid  these  rocks  one 
on  another.  Only  the  good  beasts  must  have  known 
210 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

how  to  cut  a  well- wrought  tenon  and  mortise,  and 
to  smooth  the  surface  of  some  of  the  stones.  The 
chief  mystery  is  that  any  mystery  should  have  been 
allowed  to  settle  on  so  remarkable  a  monument, 
in  a  country  on  which  all  the  muses  have  kept  their 
eyes  now  for  eighteen  hundred  years.  We  are  not 
yet  too  late  to  learn  much  more  than  is  known  of 
this  structure.  Some  diligent  Fellowes  or  Layard 
will  arrive,  stone  by  stone,  at  the  whole  history,  by 
that  exhaustive  British  sense  and  perseverance,  so 
whimsical  in  its  choice  of  objects,  which  leaves 
its  own  Stonehenge,  or  Choir  Gaur  to  the  rabbits, 
whilst  it  opens  pyramids,  and  uncovers  Nineveh. 
Stonehenge,  in  virtue  of  the  simplicity  of  its  plan, 
and  its  good  preservation,  is  as  if  new  and  recent; 
and,  a  thousand  years  hence,  men  will  thank  this 
age  for  the  accurate  history  it  will  yet  eliminate. 
We  walked  in  and  out,  and  took  again  and  again  a 
fresh  look  at  the  uncanny  stones.  The  old  sphinx 
put  our  petty  differences  of  nationality  out  of  sight. 
To  these  conscious  stones  we  two  pilgrims  were 
alike  known  and  near.  We  could  equally  well 
revere  their  old  British  meaning.  My  philosopher 
was  subdued  and  gentle.  In  this  quiet  house  of 
destiny,  he  happened  to  say,  "  I  plant  cypresses 
wherever  I  go,  and  if  I  am  in  search  of  pain  I  can 
not  go  wrong."  The  spot,  the  gray  blocks,  and  their 
rude  order,  which  refuses  to  be  disposed  of,  sug 
gested  to  him  the  flight  of  ages,  and  the  succession 
of  religions.  The  old  times  of  England  impress  G. 
much:  he  reads  little,  he  says,  in  these  last  years, 
but  "  Acta  Sanctorum,"  the  fifty-three  volumes  of 
which  are  in  the  "  London  Library."  He  finds  all 
English  history  therein.  He  can  see,  as  he  reads, 
the  old  saint  of  lona  sitting  there,  and  writing,  a  man 

211 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

to  men.  The  "Acta  Sanctorum"  show  plainly  that 
the  men  of  those  times  believed  in  God,  and  in  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  as  their  abbeys  and  cathe 
drals  testify  :  now,  even  the  puritanism  is  all  gone. 
London  is  pagan.  He  fancied  that  greater  men  had 
lived  in  England,  than  any  of  her  writers;  and,  in 
fact,  about  the  time  when  those  writers  appeared, 
the  lust  of  these  were  already  gone. 

We  left  the  mound  in  the  twilight,  with  the  design 
to  return  the  next  morning,  and  coming  back  two 
miles  to  our  inn,  we  were  met  by  little  showers,  and 
late  as  it  was,  men  and  women  were  out  attempting 
to  protect  their  spread  windrows.  The  grass  grows 
rank  and  dark  in  the  showery  England.  At  the  inn, 
there  was  only  milk  for  one  cup  of  tea.  When  we 
called  for  more,  the  girl  brought  us  three  drops. 
My  friend  was  annoyed  who  stood  for  the  credit  of 
an  English  inn,  and  still  more,  the  next  morning, 
by  the  dogcart,  sole  procurable  vehicle,  in  which  we 
were  to  be  sent  to  Wilton.  I  engaged  the  local  anti 
quary,  Mr.  Brown,  to  go  with  us  to  Stonehenge, 
on  our  way,  and  show  us  what  he  knew  of  the 
"astronomical,"  and  "sacrificial"  stones.  I  stood 
on  the  last,  and  he  pointed  to  the  upright,  or  rather, 
inclined  stone, called  the  "astronomical,"  and  bade 
me  notice  that  its  top  ranged  with  the  sky-line. 
"  Yes."  Very  well.  Now  at  the  summer  solstice, 
the  sun  rises  exactly  over  the  top  of  that  stone,  and, 
at  the  Druidical  temple  at  Abury,  there  is  also  an 
astronomical  stone  in  the  same  relative  positions. 

In  the  silence  of  tradition,  this  one  relation  to 
science  becomes  an  important  clew;  but  we  were 
content  to  leave  the  problem  with  the  rocks.  Was 
this  the  "  Giants'  Dance"  which  Merlin  brought  from 
Killaraus,iu  Ireland,  to  be  Uther  Pendragon's  monu- 
212 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

ment  to  the  British  nobles  whom  Hengist  slaughtered 
here,  as  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  relates  ?  or  was  it 
a  Roman  work,  as  Inigo  Jones  explained  to  King 
James;  or  identical  in  design  and  style  with  the 
East  Indian  temples  of  the  sun,  as  Davies  in  the 
Celtic  researches  maintains?  Of  all  the  writers, 
Stukeley  is  the  best.  The  heroic  antiquary, charmed 
with  the  geometric  perfections  of  his  ruin,  connects 
it  with  the  oldest  monuments  and  religion  of  the 
world,  and,  with  the  courage  of  his  tribe,  does  not 
stick  to  say,  "the  Deity  who  made  the  world  by  the 
scheme  of  Stonehenge."  He  finds  that  the  cursus 1 
on  Salisbury  Plain  stretches  across  the  downs,  like 
a  line  of  latitude  upon  the  globe,  and  the  meridian 
line  of  Stonehenge  passes  exactly  through  the  middle 
of  this  cursus.  But  here  is  the  high  point  of  the 
theory:  the  Druids  had  the  magnet;  laid  their 
courses  by  it ;  their  cardinal  points  in  Stonehenge, 
Ambresbury,  and  elsewhere,  which  vary  a  little 
from  true  east,  and  west,  followed  the  variations  ot 
the  compass.  The  Druids  were  Phoenicians.  The 
name  of  the  magnet  is  lapis  Heracleus,  and  Hercules 
was  the  god  of  the  Phrenicians.  Hercules,  in  the 
legend,  drew  his  bow  at  the  sun,  and  the  sun-god 
gave  him  a  golden  cup,  with  which  he  sailed  over 
the  ocean.  What  was  this,  but  a  compass-box? 
This  cup  or  little  boat,  in  which  the  magnet  was 
made  to  float  on  water,  and  so  show  the  north,  was 
probably  its  first  form,  before  it  was  suspended  on 
a  pin.  But  science  was  an  arcanum,  and,  as  Britain 
was  a  Phoenician  secret,  so  they  kept  their  compass 
a  secret,  and  it  was  lost  with  the  Tyrian  commerce. 
The  golden  fleece,  again,  of  Jason,  was  the  com 
pass, — a  bit  of  loadstone,  easily  supposed  to  be  the 
only  one  in  the  world,  and  therefore  naturally 

213 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

awakening  the  cupidity  and  ambition  of  the  young 
heroes  of  a  maritime  nation  to  join  in  an  expedition 
to  obtain  possession  of  this  wise  stone.  Hence  the 
fable  that  the  ship  Argowas  loquacious  and  oracular. 
Thereisalso  some  curious  coincidence  in  the  names. 
Apollodorus  makes  Magnes  the  son  of  JEolus,  who 
married  Nais.  On  hints  like  these,  Stukeley  builds 
again  thegrandcolonnadeinto  historic  harmony,and 
computing  backward  by  the  known  variations  of  the 
compass,  bravely  assigns  the  year  406  before  Christ 
for  the  date  of  the  temple. 

For  the  difficulty  of  handling  and  carrying  stones 
of  this  size,  the  like  is  done  in  all  cities,  every  day, 
with  no  other  aid  than  horse  power.  I  chanced  to 
see  a  year  ago  men  at  work  on  the  substructure  of 
a  house  in  Bowdoin  Square,  in  Boston,  swinging  a 
block  of  granite  of  the  size  of  the  largest  of  the  Stone- 
henge  columns  with  an  ordinary  derrick.  The  men 
were  common  masons,  with  paddies  to  help,  nor  did 
they  think  they  were  doing  anything  remarkable.  I 
suppose,  there  were  as  good  men  a  thousand  years 
ago.  And  we  wonder  how  Stonehenge  was  built 
and  forgotten.  After  spending  half  an  hour  on  the 
spot,  we  set  forth  in  our  dogcart  over  the  downs 
for  Wilton,  G.  not  suppressing  some  threats  and  evil 
omens  on  the  proprietors,  for  keeping  these  broad 
plains  a  wretched  sheep-walk,  when  so  many  thou 
sands  of  Knglish  men  were  hungry  and  wanted 
labor.  But  I  heard  afterwards  that  it  is  not  an 
economy  to  cultivate  this  land,  which  only  yields 
one  crop  on  being  broken  up,  and  is  then  spoiled. 

We  came  to  Wilton  and  to  Wilton  Hall, — the 
renowned  seat  of  the  Earls  of  Pembroke,  a  house 
known  to  Shakspeare  and  Massinger,  the  frequent 
home  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  where  he  wrote  the 
214 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

"Arcadia";  where  he  conversed  with  Lord  Brooke, 
a  man  of  deep  thought,  and  a  poet,  who  caused  to 
be  engraved  on  his  tombstone,  "Here  lies  Fulke 
Greville  Lord  Brooke,  the  friend  of  Sir  Philip 
Sidney."  It  is  now  the  property  of  the  Earl  of  Pem 
broke,  and  the  residence  of  his  brother,  Sidney 
Herbert,  Esq.,  and  is  esteemed  a  noble  specimen  of 
English  manor-hall.  My  friend  had  a  letter  from 
Mr.  Herbert  to  his  housekeeper,  and  the  house  was 
shown.  The  state  drawing-room  is  a  double  cube, 
30  feet  high,  by  30  feet  wide,  by  60  feet  long :  the 
adjoining  room  is  a  single  cube,  of  30  feet  every  way. 
Although  these  apartments  and  the  long  library 
were  full  of  good  family  portraits,  Vandykes  and 
others,  and  though  there  were  some  good  pictures, 
and  a  quadrangle  cloister  full  of  antique  and  modern 
statuary, — to  which  G.,  catalogue  in  hand,  did  all 
too  much  justice, — yet  the  eye  was  still  drawn  to 
the  windows,  to  a  magnificent  lawn,  on  which  grew 
the  finest  cedars  in  England.  I  had  not  seen  more 
charming  grounds.  We  went  out,  and  walked  over 
the  estate.  We  crossed  a  bridge  built  by  Inigo 
Jones  over  a  stream,  of  which  the  gardener  did  not 
know  the  name  (Qu.  Alph?),  watched  the  deer; 
climbed  to  the  lonely  sculptured  summer  house,  on 
a  hill  backed  by  a  wood ;  came  down  into  the  Italian 
garden,  and  into  a  French  pavilion,  garnished  with 
French  busts  ;  and  so  again  to  the  house,  where  we 
found  a  table  laid  for  us  with  bread,  meats,  peaches, 
grapes,  and  wine. 

On  leaving  Wilton  House,  we  took  the  coach  for 
Salisbury.  The  Cathedral,  which  was  finished  600 
years  ago,  has  even  a  spruce  and  modern  air,  and 
its  spire  is  the  highest  in  England.  I  know  not  why, 
but  I  had  been  more  struck  with  one  of  no  fame  at 

215 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

Coventry,  which  rises  300  feet  from  the  ground,  with 
the  lightness  of  a  mullein-plant,  and  not  at  all  impli 
cated  with  the  church.  Salisbury  is  now  esteemed 
the  culmination  of  the  Gothic  art  in  England,  as  the 
buttresses  are  fully  unmasked,  and  honestly  detailed 
from  the  sides  of  the  pile.  The  interior  of  the  Cathe 
dral  is  obstructed  by  the  organ  in  the  middle,  acting 
like  a  screen.  I  know  not  why  in  real  architecture 
the  hunger  of  the  eye  for  length  of  line  is  so  rarely 
gratified.  The  rule  of  art  is  that  a  colonnade  is 
more  beautiful  the  longer  it  is,  and  that  ad  infinitum. 
And  the  nave  of  a  church  is  seldom  so  long  that  it 
need  be  divided  by  a  screen. 

We  loitered  in  the  church,  outside  the  choir, 
whilst  service  was  said.  Whilst  we  listened  to  the 
organ,  my  friend  remarked,  the  music  is  good,  and 
yet  not  quite  religious,  but  somewhat  as  if  a  monk 
were  panting  to  some  fine  Queen  of  Heaven.  C. 
was  unwilling,  and  we  did  not  ask  to  have  the  choir 
shown  us,  but  returned  to  our  inn,  after  seeing 
another  old  church  of  the  place.  We  passed  in  the 
train  Clarendon  Park,  but  could  see  little  but  the 
edge  of  a  wood,  though  C.  had  wished  to  pay  closer 
attention  to  the  birthplace  of  the  Decrees  of  Claren 
don.  At  Bishopstoke  we  stopped,  and  found  Mr.  II., 
who  received  us  in  his  carriage,  and  took  us  to  his 
house  at  Bishops  Waltham. 

On  Sunday,  we  had  much  discourse  on  a  very 
rainy  day.  My  friends  asked  whether  there  were 
any  Americans? — any  with  an  American  idea, — 
any  theory  of  the  right  future  of  that  country  ?  Thus 
challenged,  I  bethought  myself  neither  of  caucuses 
nor  congress,  neither  of  presidents  nor  of  cabinet- 
ministers,  nor  of  such  as  would  make  of  America 
another  Europe.  I  thought  only  of  the  simplest  and 
216 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

purest  minds ;  I  said,  '  Certainly  yes ; — but  those 
who  hold  it  are  fanatics  of  a  dream  which  I  should 
hardly  care  to  relate  to  your  English  ears,  to  which 
it  might  be  only  ridiculous, — and  yet  it  is  the  only 
true.'  So  I  opened  the  dogma  of  no-government 
and  non-resistance,  and  anticipated  the  objections 
and  the  fun,  and  procured  a  kind  of  hearing  for 
it.  I  said,  it  is  true  that  I  have  never  seen  in  any 
country  a  man  of  sufficient  valor  to  stand  for  this 
truth,  and  yet  it  is  plain  to  me  that  no  less  valor 
than  this  can  command  my  respect.  I  can  easily 
see  the  bankruptcy  of  the  vulgar  musket- worship, — 
though  great  men  be  musket-worshippers  ; — and  'tis 
certain  as  God  liveth,  the  gun  that  does  not  need 
another  gun,  the  law  of  love  and  justice  alone,  can 
effect  a  clean  revolution.  I  fancied  that  one  or  two 
of  my  anecdotes  made  some  impression  on  G.,  and 
I  insisted  that  the  manifest  absurdity  of  the  view 
to  English  feasibility  could  make  no  difference  to 
a  gentleman ;  that  as  to  our  secure  tenure  of  our 
mutton-chop  and  spinage  in  London  or  in  Boston, 
the  soul  might  quote  Talleyrand,  "Monsieur,  je  n'en 
vois  pas  la  necessite."  2  As  I  had  thus  taken  in  the 
conversation  the  saint's  part,  when  dinner  was  an 
nounced,  G.  refused  to  go  out  before  me, — "he  was 
altogether  too  wicked."  I  planted  my  back  against 
the  wall,  and  our  host  wittily  rescued  us  from  the 
dilemma,by  saying,  he  was  the  wickedest,  and  would 
walk  out  first,  then  G.  followed,  and  I  went  last. 

On  the  way  to  Winchester,  whither  our  host  ac 
companied  us  in  the  afternoon,  my  friends  asked 
many  questions  respecting  American  landscape, 
forests,  houses, — my  house,  for  example.  It  is  not 
easy  to  answer  these  queries  well.  There  I  thought, 
in  America,  lies  nature  sleeping,  overgrowing,  almost 

217 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

conscious,  too  much  by  half  for  man  in  the  pic 
ture,  and  so  giving  a  certain  tristesse,  like  the  rank 
vegetation  of  swamps  and  forests  seen  at  night, 
steeped  in  dews  and  rains,  which  it  loves  ;  and  on 
it  man  seems  not  able  to  make  much  impression. 
There,  in  that  great  sloven  continent,  in  high  Alle- 
ghany  pastures,  in  the  sea- wide,  sky-skirted  prairie, 
still  sleeps  and  murmurs  and  hides  the  great  mother, 
long  since  driven  away  from  the  trim  hedge-rows 
and  over-cultivated  garden  of  England.  And,  in 
England,  I  am  quite  too  sensible  of  this.  Every 
one  is  on  his  good  behavior,  and  must  be  dressed 
for  dinner  at  six.  So  I  put  off  my  friends  with  very 
inadequate  details,  as  best  I  could. 

Just  before  entering  Winchester,  we  stopped 
at  the  Church  of  Saint  Gross,  and,  after  looking 
through  the  quaint  antiquity,  we  demanded  a  piece 
of  bread  and  a  draught  of  beer,  which  the  founder, 
Henry  de  Blois,  in  1136,  commanded  should  be 
given  to  every  one  who  should  ask  it  at  the  gate. 
We  had  both,  from  the  old  couple  who  took  care 
of  the  church.  Some  twenty  people,  every  day, 
they  said,  make  the  same  demand.  This  hospitality 
of  seven  hundred  years'  standing  did  not  hinder  G. 
from  pronouncing  a  malediction  on  the  priest  who 
receives  £2000  a  year,  that  were  meant  for  the 
poor,  and  spends  a  pittance  on  this  small  beer  and 
crumbs. 

In  the  Cathedral,  I  was  gratified,  at  least  by  the 
ample  dimensions.  The  length  of  line  exceeds  that 
of  any  other  English  church ;  being  556  feet  by 
250  in  breadth  of  transept.  I  think  I  prefer  this 
church  to  all  I  have  seen,  except  Westminster  and 
York.  Here  was  Canute  buried,  and  here  Alfred 
the  Great  was  crowned  and  buried,  and  here  the 
218 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

Saxon  kings  :  and,  later,  in  his  own  church,  William 
of  Wykeham.  It  is  very  old  :  part  of  the  crypt  into 
which  we  went  down  and  saw  the  Saxon  and  Nor 
man  arches  of  the  old  church  on  which  the  present 
stands,  was  built  fourteen  or  fifteen  hundred  years 
ago.  Sharon  Turner  says,  "Alfred  was  buried  at 
Winchester,  in  the  Abbey  he  had  founded  there, 
but  his  remains  were  removed  by  Henry  I.  to  the 
new  Abbey  in  the  meadows  at  Hyde,  on  the  northern 
quarter  of  the  city,  and  laid  under  the  high  altar. 
The  building  was  destroyed  at  the  Reformation,  and 
what  is  left  of  Alfred's  body  now  lies  covered  by 
modern  buildings,  or  buried  in  the  ruins  of  the 
old."  3  William  of  Wykeham's  shrine  tomb  was  un 
locked  for  us,  and  G.  took  hold  of  the  recumbent 
statue's  marble  hands,  and  patted  them  affection 
ately,  for  he  rightly  values  the  brave  man  who  built 
Windsor,  and  this  Cathedral,  and  the  School  here, 
and  New  College  at  Oxford.  But  it  was  growing 
late  in  the  afternoon.  Slowly  we  left  the  old  house, 
and  parting  with  our  host,  we  took  the  train  for 
London. 

NOTES 

1  Connected  with  Stonehenge  are  an  avenue  and  a 
cursus.  The  avenue  is  a  narrow  road  of  raised  earth, 
extending  594  yards  in  a  straight  line  from  the  grand 
entrance,  then  dividing  into  two  branches,  which  led, 
severally,  to  a  row  of  barrows;  and  to  the  cursus, — an 
artificially  formed  flat  tract  of  ground.  This  is  half  a 
mile  northeast  from  Stonehenge,  bounded  by  banks  and 
ditches,  3036  yards  long,  by  110  broad. 

"Mais,  Monseigneur,  ilfaut  quefexiste." 


3  "  History  of  the  Anglo-Saxons"  i.  599. 


219 


CHAPTER  XVII.  PERSONAL 

IN  these  comments  on  an  old  journey  now 
revised  after  seven  busy  years  have  much 
changed  men  and  things  in  England,  I  have 
abstained  from  reference  to  persons,  except 
in  the  last  chapter,  and  in  one  or  two  cases  where 
the  fame  of  the  parties  seemed  to  have  given  the 
public  a  property  in  all  that  concerned  them.  I 
must  further  allow  myself  a  few  notices,  if  only  as 
an  acknowledgment  of  debts  that  cannot  be  paid. 
My  journeys  were  cheered  by  so  much  kindness 
from  new  friends,  that  my  impression  of  the  island 
is  bright  with  agreeable  memories  both  of  public 
societies  and  of  households:  and,  what  is  nowhere 
better  found  than  in  England,  a  cultivated  person 
fitly  surrounded  by  a  happy  home,  "with  honor, 
love,  obedience,  troops  of  friends,"  is  of  all  insti 
tutions  the  best.  At  the  landing  in  Liverpool,  I 
found  my  Manchester  correspondent  awaiting  me,  a 
gentleman  whose  kind  reception  was  followed  by 
a  train  of  friendly  and  effective  attentions  which 
never  rested  whilst  I  remained  in  the  country.  A 
man  of  sense  and  of  letters,  the  editor  of  a  powerful 
local  journal,  he  added  to  solid  virtues  an  infinite 
sweetness  and  bonhomie.  There  seemed  a  pool  of 
honey  about  his  heart  which  lubricated  all  his 
speech  and  action  with  fine  jets  of  mead.  An  equal 
good  fortune  attended  many  later  accidents  of  my 
journey,  until  the  sincerity  of  English  kindness 
ceased  to  surprise.  My  visit  fell  in  the  fortunate 
days  when  Mr.  Bancroft  was  the  American  Minister 
in  London,  and  at  his  house,  or  through  his  good 
offices,  I  had  easy  access  to  excellent  persons  and 
to  privileged  places.  At  the  house  of  Mr.  Garlyle, 
I  met  persons  eminent  in  society  and  in  letters. 

221 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

The  privileges  of  the  Athenaeum  and  of  the  Reform 
Clubs  were  hospitably  opened  to  me,  and  I  found 
much  advantage  in  the  circles  of  the  "  Geologic," 
the  "  Antiquarian,"  and  the  "  Royal  Societies." 
Every  day  in  London  gave  me  new  opportunities 
of  meeting  men  and  women  who  give  splendor  to 
society.  I  saw  Rogers,  Hallam,  Macaulay,  Milnes, 
Milman,  Barry  Cornwall,  Dickens,  Thackeray, 
Tennyson,  Leigh  Hunt,  D'Israeli,  Helps,  Wilkin 
son,  Bailey,  Kenyon,  and  Forster  :  the  younger 
poets,  Clough,  Arnold,  and  Patmore ;  and,  among 
the  men  of  science,Robert  Brown,  Owen,  Sedgwick, 
Faraday,  Buckland,  Lyell,  De  la  Beche,  Hooker, 
Carpenter,  Babbage,  and  Edward  Forbes.  It  was 
my  privilege  also  to  converse  with  Miss  Baillie, 
with  Lady  Morgan,  with  Mrs.  Jameson,  and  Mrs. 
Somerville.  A  finer  hospitality  made  many  private 
houses  not  less  known  and  dear.  It  is  not  in  dis 
tinguished  circles  that  wisdom  and  elevated  charac 
ters  are  usually  found,  or,  if  found,  not  confined 
thereto  ;  and  my  recollections  of  the  best  hours  go 
back  to  private  conversations  in  different  parts  of 
the  kingdom,  with  persons  little  known.  Nor  am 
I  insensible  to  the  courtesy  which  frankly  opened 
to  me  some  noble  mansions,  if  I  do  not  adorn  my 
page  with  their  names.  Among  the  privileges  of 
London,  I  recall  with  pleasure  two  or  three  sig 
nal  days,  one  at  Kew,  where  Sir  William  Hooker 
showed  me  all  the  riches  of  the  vast  botanic  gar 
den;  one  at  the  Museum,  where  Sir  Charles  Fel- 
lowes  explained  in  detail  the  history  of  his  Ionic 
trophy-monument ;  and  still  another,  on  which 
Mr.  Owen  accompanied  my  countryman  Mr.  H. 
and  myself  through  the  Hunterian  Museum. 

The  like  frank  hospitality,  bent  on  real  service, 
222 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

I  found  among  the  great  and  the  humble,  wherever 
I  went ;  in  Birmingham,  in  Oxford,  in  Leicester, 
in  Nottingham,  in  Sheffield,  in  Manchester,  in 
Liverpool.  At  Edinburgh,  through  the  kindness 
of  Dr.  Samuel  Brown,  I  made  the  acquaintance  of 
De  Quincey,  of  Lord  Jeffrey,  of  Wilson,  of  Mrs. 
Crowe,  of  the  Messrs.  Chambers,  and  of  a  man  of 
high  character  and  genius,  the  short-lived  painter, 
David  Scott. 

At  Ambleside,  in  March,  1848, 1  was  for  a  couple 
of  days  the  guest  of  Miss  Martineau,  then  newly 
returned  from  her  Egyptian  tour.  On  Sunday  after 
noon  I  accompanied  her  to  Rydal  Mount.  And  as 
I  have  recorded  a  visit  to  Wordsworth,  many  years 
before,  I  must  not  forget  this  second  interview. 
We  found  Mr.  Wordsworth  asleep  on  the  sofa.  He 
was  at  first  silent  and  indisposed,  as  an  old  man 
suddenly  waked,  before  he  had  ended  his  nap ;  but 
soon  became  full  of  talk  on  the  French  news.  He 
was  nationally  bitter  on  the  French:  bitter  on 
Scotchmen,  too.  No  Scotchman,  he  said,  can  write 
English.  He  detailed  the  two  models,  on  one  or  the 
other  of  which  all  the  sentences  of  the  historian 
Robertson  are  framed.  Nor  could  Jeffrey  nor  the 
Edinburgh  Reviewers  write  English,  nor  can  *  '  *, 
who  is  a  pest  to  the  English  tongue.  Incidentally  he 
added,  Gibbon  cannot  write  English.  The  "  Edin 
burgh  Review "  wrote  what  would  tell  and  what 
would  sell.  It  had  however  changed  the  tone  of  its 
literary  criticism  from  the  time  when  a  certain  letter 
was  written  to  the  editor  by  Coleridge.  Mrs.  W. 
had  the  editor's  answer  in  her  possession.  Tenny 
son  he  thinks  a  right  poetic  genius,  though  with 
some  affectation.  He  had  thought  an  elder  brother 
of  Tennyson  at  first  the  better  poet,  but  must  now 

223 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

reckon  Alfred  the  true  one.  ...  In  speaking  of 
I  know  not  what  style,  he  said,  "to  be  sure,  it 
was  the  manner,  but  then  you  know  the  matter 
always  comes  out  of  the  manner."  .  .  .  He  thought 
Rio  Janeiro  the  best  place  in  the  world  for  a  great 
capital  city.  .  .  .  We  talked  of  English  national 
character.  I  told  him,  it  was  not  creditable  that  no 
one  in  all  the  country  knew  anything  of  Thomas 
Taylor,  the  Platonist,  whilst  in  every  American 
library  his  translations  are  found.  I  said,  if  Plato's 
"Republic"  were  published  in  England  as  a  new 
book  to-day,  do  you  think  it  would  find  any 
readers  ? — he  confessed,  it  would  not :  "  And  yet," 
he  added  after  a  pause,  with  that  complacency 
which  never  deserts  a  true-born  Englishman,  "and 
yet  we  have  embodied  it  all." 

His  opinions  of  French,  English,  Irish,  and  Scotch 
seemed  rashly  formulized  from  little  anecdotes 
of  what  had  befallen  himself  and  members  of  his 
family,  in  a  diligence  or  stage-coach.  His  face  some 
times  lightedup,buthisconversationwas  notmarked 
by  special  force  or  elevation.  Yet  perhaps  it  is  a 
high  compliment  to  the  cultivation  of  the  English 
generally,  when  we  find  such  a  man  not  distin 
guished.  He  had  a  healthy  look,  with  a  weather- 
beaten  face,  his  face  corrugated,  especially  the  large 
nose. 

Miss  Martineau,  who  lived  near  him,  praised  him 
to  me  not  for  his  poetry,  but  for  thrift  and  economy ; 
for  having  afforded  to  his  country-neighbors  an  ex 
ample  of  a  modest  household,  where  comfort  and 
culture  were  secured  without  any  display.  She  said 
that,  in  his  early  housekeeping  at  the  cottage  where 
he  first  lived,  he  was  accustomed  to  offer  his  friends 
bread  and  plainest  fare:  if  they  wanted  anything 
224 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

more,  they  must  pay  him  for  their  board.  It  was 
the  rule  of  the  house.  I  replied  that  it  evinced 
English  pluck  more  than  any  anecdote  I  knew.  A 
gentleman  in  the  neighborhood  told  the  story  of 
Walter  Scott's  staying  once  for  a  week  with  Words 
worth,  and  slipping  out  every  day  under  the  pre 
tence  of  a  walk,  to  the  Swan  Inn,  for  a  cold  cut  and 
porter ;  and  one  day  passing  with  Wordsworth  the 
inn,  he  was  betrayed  by  the  landlord's  asking  him 
if  he  had  come  for  his  porter.  Of  course,  this  trait 
would  have  another  look  in  London,  and  there  you 
will  hear  from  different  literary  men  that  Words 
worth  had  no  personal  friend,  that  he  was  not 
amiable,  that  he  was  parsimonious,  &c.  Landor, 
always  generous,  says  that  he  never  praised  any 
body.  A  gentleman  in  London  showed  me  a  watch 
that  once  belonged  to  Milton,  whose  initials  are  en 
graved  on  its  face.  He  said,  he  once  showed  this  to 
Wordsworth,  who  took  it  in  one  hand,  then  drew 
out  his  own  watch,  and  held  it  up  with  the  other, 
before  the  company,  but  no  one  making  the  expected 
remark,  he  put  back  his  own  in  silence.  I  do  not 
attach  much  importance  to  the  disparagement  of 
Wordsworth  among  London  scholars.  Who  reads 
him  well  will  know  that  in  following  the  strong  bent 
of  his  genius,  he  was  careless  of  the  many,  careless 
also  of  the  few,  self-assured  that  he  should  "  create  the 
taste  by  which  he  is  to  be  enjoyed."  He  lived  long 
enough  to  witness  the  revolution  he  had  wrought, 
and  "  to  see  what  he  foresaw."  There  are  torpid 
places  in  his  mind,  there  is  something  hard  and 
sterile  in  his  poetry,  want  of  grace  and  variety,  want 
of  due  catholicity  and  cosmopolitan  scope:  he  had 
conformities  to  English  politics  and  traditions ;  he 
had  egotistic  puerilities  in  the  choice  and  treatment 
p  225 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

of  his  subjects;  but  let  us  say  of  him  that,  alone  in 
his  time,  he  treated  the  human  mind  well,  and  with 
an  absolute  trust.  His  adherence  to  his  poetic  creed 
rested  on  real  inspirations.  The  "  Ode  on  Immor 
tality"  is  the  high-water  mark  which  the  intellect 
has  reached  in  this  age.  New  means  were  employed, 
and  new  realms  added  to  the  empire  of  the  muse, 
by  his  courage. 


226 


CHAPTER  XVIII.  RESULT 

ENGLAND  is  the  best  of  actual  nations. 
It  is  no  ideal  framework,  it  is  an  old  pile 
built  in  different  ages,  with  repairs,  addi 
tions,  and  makeshifts ;  but  you  see  the 
poor  best  you  have  got.  London  is  the  epitome  of 
our  times,  and  the  Rome  of  to-day.  Broad-fronted, 
broad-bottomed  Teutons,  they  stand  in  solid  phalanx 
foursquare  to  the  points  of  compass ;  they  constitute 
the  modern  world,  they  have  earned  their  vantage- 
ground,  and  held  it  through  ages  of  adverse  posses 
sion.  They  are  well  marked  and  differing  from  other 
leading  races.  England  is  tender- hearted.  Rome  was 
not.  England  is  not  so  public  in  its  bias ;  private  life  is 
its  place  of  honor.  Truth  in  private  life,  untruth  in 
public,  marks  these  home-loving  men.  Their  politi 
cal  conduct  is  not  decided  by  general  views,  but  by 
internal  intrigues  and  personal  and  family  interest. 
They  cannot  readily  see  beyond  England.  The 
history  of  Rome  and  Greece,  when  written  by  their 
scholars,  degenerates  into  English  party  pamphlets. 
They  cannot  see  beyond  England,  nor  in  England 
can  they  transcend  the  interests  of  the  governing 
classes.  "English  principles"  mean  a  primary  re 
gard  to  the  interests  of  property.  England,  Scotland, 
and  Ireland  combine  to  check  the  colonies.  England 
and  Scotland  combine  to  check  Irish  manufactures 
and  trade.  England  rallies  at  home  to  check  Scot 
land.  In  England,  the  strong  classes  check  the 
weaker.  In  the  home  population  of  near  thirty 
millions,  there  are  but  one  million  voters.  The 
Church  punishes  dissent,  punishes  education.  Down 
to  a  late  day,  marriages  performed  by  dissenters 
were  illegal.  A  bitter  class-legislation  gives  power 
to  those  who  are  rich  enough  to  buy  a  law.  The 

227 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

game-laws  are  a  proverb  of  oppression.  Pauperism 
incrusts  and  clogs  the  state,  and  in  hard  times 
becomes  hideous.  In  bad  seasons,  the  porridge  was 
diluted.  Multitudes  lived  miserably  by  shell-fish 
and  sea-ware.  In  cities,  the  children  are  trained  to 
beg,  until  they  shall  be  old  enough  to  rob.  Men 
and  women  were  convicted  of  poisoning  scores  of 
children  for  burial-fees.  In  Irish  districts,  men  de 
teriorated  in  size  and  shape,  the  nose  sunk,  the 
gums  were  exposed,  with  diminished  brain  and 
brutal  form.  During  the  Australian  emigration, 
multitudes  were  rejected  by  the  commissioners  as 
being  too  emaciated  for  useful  colonists.  During 
the  Russian  war,  few  of  those  that  offered  as  recruits 
were  found  up  to  the  medical  standard,  though  it 
had  been  reduced. 

The  foreign  policy  of  England,  though  ambitious 
and  lavish  of  money,  has  not  often  been  generous 
or  just.  It  has  a  principal  regard  to  the  interest  of 
trade,  checked  however  by  the  aristocratic  bias 
of  the  ambassador,  which  usually  puts  him  in  sym 
pathy  with  the  continental  Courts.  It  sanctioned 
the  partition  of  Poland,  it  betrayed  Genoa,  Sicily, 
Parga,  Greece,  Turkey,  Rome,  and  Hungary. 

Some  public  regards  they  have.  They  have 
abolished  slavery  in  the  West  Indies,  and  put  an 
end  to  human  sacrifices  in  the  East.  At  home  they 
have  a  certain  statute  hospitality.  England  keeps 
open  doors,  as  a  trading  country  must,  to  all  nations. 
It  is  one  of  their  fixed  ideas,  and  wrathfully  sup 
ported  by  their  laws  in  unbroken  sequence  for  a 
thousand  years.  In  Magna  Charta  it  was  ordained 
that  all  "  merchants  shall  have  safe  and  secure  con 
duct  to  go  out  and  come  into  England,  and  to  stay 
there,  and  to  pass  as  well  by  land  as  by  water,  to 
228 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

buy  and  sell  by  the  ancient  allowed  customs,  with 
out  any  evil  toll,  except  in  time  of  war,  or  when 
they  shall  be  of  any  nation  at  war  with  us."  It  is 
a  statute  and  obliged  hospitalitys  and  peremp 
torily  maintained.  But  this  shop-rule  had  one 
magnificent  effect.  It  extends  its  cold  unalterable 
courtesy  to  political  exiles  of  every  opinion,  and 
is  a  fact  which  might  give  additional  light  to  that 
portion  of  the  planet  seen  from  the  farthest  star. 
But  this  perfunctory  hospitality  puts  no  sweet 
ness  into  their  unaccommodating  manners,  no 
check  on  that  puissant  nationality  which  makes 
their  existence  incompatible  with  all  that  is  not 
English. 

What  we  must  say  about  a  nation  is  a  superficial 
dealing  with  symptoms.  We  cannot  go  deep  enough 
into  the  biography  of  the  spirit  who  never  throws 
himself  entire  into  one  hero,  but  delegates  his  energy 
in  parts  or  spasms  to  vicious  and  defective  indi 
viduals.  But  the  wealth  of  the  source  is  seen  in 
the  plenitude  of  English  nature.  What  variety  of 
power  and  talent ;  what  facility  and  plenteousness 
of  knighthood,  lordship,  ladyship,  royalty,  loyalty ; 
what  a  proud  chivalry  is  indicated  in  "Collins's 
Peerage,"  through  eight  hundred  years  !  What 
dignity  resting  on  what  reality  and  stoutness  !  What 
courage  in  war,  what  sinew  in  labor,  what  cunning 
workmen,  what  inventors  and  engineers,  what  sea 
men  and  pilots,  what  clerks  and  scholars  !  No  one 
man  and  no  few  men  can  represent  them.  It  is  a 
people  of  myriad  personalities.  Their  many-headed- 
ness  is  owing  to  the  advantageous  position  of  the 
middle  class,  who  are  always  the  source  of  letters 
and  science.  Hence  the  vast  plenty  of  their  aesthetic 
production.  As  they  are  many-headed,  so  they  are 

229 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

many-nationed :  their  colonization  annexes  archi 
pelagoes  and  continents,  and  their  speech  seems  des 
tined  to  be  the  universal  language  of  men.  I  have 
noted  the  reserve  of  power  in  the  English  tempera 
ment.  In  the  island,  they  never  let  out  all  the  length 
of  all  the  reins,  there  is  no  Berserkir  rage,  no  aban 
donment  or  ecstasy  of  will  or  intellect,  like  that  of 
the  Arabs  in  the  time  of  Mahomet,  or  like  that 
which  intoxicated  France  in  1789.  But  who  would 
see  the  uncoiling  of  that  tremendous  spring,  the  ex 
plosion  of  their  well-husbanded  forces,  must  follow 
the  swarms  which,  pouring  now  for  two  hundred 
years  from  the  British  islands,  have  sailed,  and  rode, 
and  traded,  and  planted,  through  all  climates,  mainly 
following  the  belt  of  empire,  the  temperate  zones, 
carrying  the  Saxon  seed,  with  its  instinct  for  liberty 
and  law,  for  arts  and  for  thought, — acquiring  under 
some  skies  a  more  electric  energy  than  the  native 
air  allows, — to  the  conquest  of  the  globe.  Their 
colonial  policy,  obeying  the  necessities  of  a  vast 
empire,  has  become  liberal.  Canada  and  Australia 
have  been  contented  with  substantial  independence. 
They  are  expiating  the  wrongs  of  India,  by  benefits; 
first,  in  works  for  the  irrigation  of  the  peninsula, 
and  roads  and  telegraphs;  and  secondly,  in  the 
instruction  of  the  people,  to  qualify  them  for  self- 
government,  when  the  British  power  shall  be  finally 
called  home. 

Their  mind  is  in  a  state  of  arrested  development, — 
a  divine  cripple  like  Vulcan ;  a  blind  savant  like 
Huber  and  Sanderson.  They  do  not  occupy  them 
selves  on  matters  of  general  and  lasting  import,  but 
on  a  corporeal  civilization,  on  goods  that  perish  in 
the  using.  But  they  read  with  good  intent,  and  what 
they  learn  they  incarnate.  The  English  mind  turns 
230 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

every  abstraction  it  can  receive  into  a  portable 
utensil,  or  a  working  institution.  Such  is  their  tena 
city,  and  such  their  practical  turn,  that  they  hold 
all  they  gain.  Hence  we  say  that  only  the  English 
race  can  be  trusted  with  freedom, — freedom  which 
is  double-edged  and  dangerous  to  any  but  the  wise 
and  robust.  The  English  designate  the  kingdoms 
emulous  of  free  institutions,  as  the  sentimental 
nations.  Their  culture  is  not  an  outside  varnish, 
but  is  thorough  and  secular  in  families  and  the  race. 
They  are  oppressive  with  their  temperament,  and 
all  the  more  that  they  are  refined.  I  have  some 
times  seen  them  walk  with  my  countrymen  when 
I  was  forced  to  allow  them  every  advantage,  and 
their  companions  seemed  bags  of  bones. 

There  is  cramp  limitation  in  their  habit  of  thought, 
sleepy  routine,  and  a  tortoise's  instinct  to  hold  hard 
to  the  ground  with  his  claws,  lest  he  should  be 
thrown  on  his  back.  There  is  a  drag  of  inertia  which 
resists  reform  in  every  shape ; — law-reform,  army- 
reform,  extension  of  suffrage,  Jewish  franchise, 
Catholic  emancipation, — the  abolition  of  slavery, 
of  impressment,  penal  code,  and  entails.  They 
praise  this  drag,  under  the  formula  that  it  is  the 
excellence  of  the  British  constitution,  that  no  law 
can  anticipate  the  public  opinion.  These  poor  tor 
toises  must  hold  hard,  for  they  feel  no  wings  sprout 
ing  at  their  shoulders.  Yet  somewhat  divine  warms 
at  their  heart,  and  waits  a  happier  hour.  It  hides  in 
their  sturdy  will.  "  Will,"  said  the  old  philosophy, 
is  the  measure  of  power,"  and  personality  is  the 
token  of  this  race.  Quid  vult  valde  vult.  What  they  do 
they  do  with  a  will.  You  cannot  account  for  their 
success  by  their  Christianity,  commerce,  charter, 
common  law,  Parliament,  or  letters,  but  by  the 

23X 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

contumacious  sharp-tongued  energy  of  English 
naturel,  with  a  poise  impossible  to  disturb,  which 
makes  all  these  its  instruments.  They  are  slow  and 
reticent,  and  are  like  a  dull  good  horse  which  lets 
every  nag  pass  him,  but  with  whip  and  spur  will 
run  down  every  racer  in  the  field.  They  are  right 
in  their  feeling,  though  wrong  in  their  speculation. 

The  feudal  system  survives  in  the  steep  inequality 
of  property  and  privilege,  in  the  limited  franchise, 
in  the  social  barriers  which  confine  patronage  and 
promotion  to  a  caste, and  still  more  in  the  submissive 
ideas  pervading  these  people.  The  fagging  of  the 
schools  is  repeated  in  the  social  classes.  An  Eng 
lishman  shows  no  mercy  to  those  below  him  in  the 
social  scale,  as  he  looks  for  none  from  those  above 
him  :  any  forbearance  from  his  superiors  surprises 
him,  and  they  suffer  in  his  good  opinion.  But  the 
feudal  system  can  be  seen  with  less  pain  on  large 
historical  grounds.  It  was  pleaded  in  mitigation 
of  the  rotten  borough,  that  it  worked  well,  that 
substantial  justice  was  done.  Fox,  Burke,  Pitt, 
Erskine,  Wilberforce,  Sheridan,  Romilly,  or  what 
ever  national  man,  were  by  this  means  sent  to  Par 
liament,  when  their  return  by  large  constituencies 
would  have  been  doubtful.  So  now  we  say  that  the 
right  measures  of  England  are  the  men  it  bred ;  that 
it  has  yielded  more  able  men  in  five  hundred  years 
than  any  other  nation;  and,  though  we  must  not  play 
Providence,  and  balance  the  chances  of  producing 
ten  great  men  against  the  comfort  of  ten  thousand 
mean  men,  yet  retrospectively  we  may  strike  the 
balance,  and  prefer  one  Alfred,  one  Shakspeare,  one 
Milton,  one  Sidney,  one  Raleigh,  one  Wellington, 
to  a  million  foolish  democrats. 

The  American  system  is  more  democratic,  more 
232 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

humane ;  yet  the  American  people  do  not  yield  better 
or  more  able  men,  or  more  inventions  or  books  or 
benefits,  than  the  English.  Congress  is  not  wiser  or 
better  than  Parliament.  France  has  abolished  its 
suffocating  old  regime,  but  is  not  recently  marked  by 
any  more  wisdom  or  virtue. 

The  power  of  performance  has  not  been  ex 
ceeded, — -the  creation  of  value.  The  English  have 
given  importance  to  individuals,  a  principal  end  and 
fruit  of  every  society.  Every  man  is  allowed  and 
encouraged  to  be  what  he  is,  and  is  guarded  in  the 
indulgence  of  his  whim.  "  Magna  Charta,"  said 
Rushworth,  "  is  such  a  fellow  that  he  will  have  no 
sovereign."  By  this  general  activity,  and  by  this 
sacredness  of  individuals,  they  have  in  seven  hun 
dred  years  evolved  the  principles  of  freedom.  It  is 
the  land  of  patriots,  martyrs,  sages,  and  bards,  and 
if  the  ocean  out  of  which  it  emerged  should  wash 
it  away,  it  will  be  remembered  as  an  island  famous 
for  immortal  laws,  for  the  announcement  of  original 
right  which  make  the  stone  tables  of  liberty. 


233 


CHAPTER  XIX.  SPEECH  AT 
MANCHESTER 

A  FEW  days  after  my  arrival  at  Manches 
ter,  in  November,  1847,  the  Manchester 
Athenaeum  gave  its  annual  Banquet  in 
the  Free-Trade  Hall.  With  other  guests, 
I  was  invited  to  be  present,  and  to  address  the  com 
pany.  In  looking  over  recently  a  newspaper-report 
of  my  remarks,  I  incline  to  reprint  it,  as  fitly  ex 
pressing  the  feeling  with  which  I  entered  England, 
and  which  agrees  well  enough  with  the  more  deli 
berate  results  of  better  acquaintance  recorded  in 
the  foregoing  pages.  Sir  Archibald  Alison,  the  his 
torian,  presided,  and  opened  the  meeting  with  a 
speech.  He  was  followed  by  Mr.  Gobden,  Lord 
Brackley,  and  others,  among  whom  was  Mr.  Gruik- 
shank,  one  of  the  contributors  to  "  Punch."  Mr. 
Dickens's  letter  of  apology  for  his  absence  was 
read.  Mr.  Jerrold,  who  had  been  announced,  did 
not  appear.  On  being  introduced  to  the  meeting, 
I  said : — 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  :  It  is  pleasant  to 
me  to  meet  this  great  and  brilliant  company,  and 
doubly  pleasant  to  see  the  faces  of  so  many  distin 
guished  persons  on  this  platform.  But  I  have  known 
all  these  persons  already.  When  I  was  at  home, 
they  were  as  near  to  me  as  they  are  to  you.  The 
arguments  of  the  League  and  its  leader  are  known 
to  all  the  friends  of  free  trade.  The  gayeties  and 
genius,  the  political,  the  social,  the  parietal  wit  of 
"  Punch  "  go  duly  every  fortnight  to  every  boy  and 
girl  in  Boston  and  New  York.  Sir,  when  I  came 
to  sea,  I  found  the  "  History  of  Europe  "  1  on  the 
ship's  cabin  table,  the  property  of  the  captain ; — a 
sort  of  programme  or  play-bill  to  tell  the  seafaring 

235 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

New  Englander  what  he  shall  find  on  his  landing 
here.  And  as  for  Dombey,  sir,  there  is  no  land 
where  paper  exists  to  print  on,  where  it  is  not 
found ;  no  man  who  can  read,  that  does  not  read 
it,  and,  if  he  cannot,  he  finds  some  charitable  pair 
of  eyes  that  can,  and  hears  it. 

But  these  things  are  not  for  me  to  say ;  these 
compliments,  though  true,  would  better  come  from 
one  who  felt  and  understood  these  merits  more.  I 
am  not  here  to  exchange  civilities  with  you,  but 
rather  to  speak  of  that  which  I  am  sure  interests 
these  gentlemen  more  than  their  own  praises ;  of 
that  which  is  good  in  holidays  and  working-days, 
the  same  in  one  century  and  in  another  century. 
That  which  lures  a  solitary  American  in  the  woods 
with  the  wish  to  see  England,  is  the  moral  pecu 
liarity  of  the  Saxon  race, — its  commanding  sense 
of  right  and  wrong, — the  love  and  devotion  to  that, — 
this  is  the  imperial  trait,  which  arms  them  with  the 
sceptre  of  the  globe.  It  is  this  which  lies  at  the 
foundation  of  that  aristocratic  character,  which 
certainly  wanders  into  strange  vagaries,  so  that  its 
origin  is  often  lost  sight  of,  but  which,  if  it  should 
lose  this,  would  find  itself  paralyzed  ;  and  in  trade, 
and  in  the  mechanic's  shop,  gives  that  honesty  in 
performance,  that  thorouglmessand  solidity  of  work, 
which  is  a  national  characteristic.  This  conscience 
is  one  element,  and  the  other  is  that  loyal  adhesion, 
that  habit  of  friendship,  that  homage  of  man  to  man, 
running  through  all  classes, — the  electing  of  worthy 
persons  to  a  certain  fraternity,  to  acts  of  kindness 
and  warm  and  stanch  support,  from  year  to  year, 
from  youth  to  age, — which  is  alike  lovely  and  honor 
able  to  those  who  render  and  those  who  receive 
it ; — which  stands  in  strong  contrast  with  the  super- 
236 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

ficial  attachments  of  other  races,  their  excessive 
courtesy,  and  short-lived  connection. 

You  will  think  me  very  pedantic,  gentlemen,  but 
holiday  though  it  be,  I  have  not  the  smallest  interest 
in  any  holiday,  except  as  it  celebrates  real  and  not 
pretended  joys;  and  I  think  it  just,  in  this  time  of 
gloom  and  commercial  disaster,  of  affliction  and 
beggary  in  these  districts,  that,  on  these  very  ac 
counts  I  speak  of,  you  should  not  fail  to  keep  your 
literary  anniversary.  I  seem  to  hear  you  say  that, 
for  all  that  is  come  and  gone  yet,  we  will  not  reduce 
by  one  chaplet  or  one  oak  leaf  the  braveries  of  our 
annual  feast.  For  I  must  tell  you,  I  was  given  to 
understand  in  my  childhood,  that  the  British  island 
from  which  my  forefathers  came,  was  no  lotus-gar 
den,  no  paradise  of  serene  sky  and  roses  and  music 
and  merriment  all  the  year  round,  no,  but  a  cold 
foggy  mournful  country,  where  nothing  grew  well 
in  the  open  air,  but  robust  men  and  virtuous  women, 
and  these  of  a  wonderful  fibre  and  endurance;  that 
their  best  parts  were  slowly  revealed ;  their  virtues 
did  not  come  out  until  they  quarrelled :  they  did 
not  strike  twelve  the  first  time ;  good  lovers,  good 
haters,  and  you  could  know  little  about  them  till 
you  had  seen  them  long,  and  little  good  of  them  till 
you  had  seen  them  in  action ;  that  in  prosperity 
they  were  moody  and  dumpish,  but  in  adversity 
they  were  grand.  Is  it  not  true,  sir,  that  the  wise 
ancients  did  not  praise  the  ship  parting  with  flying 
colors  from  the  port,  but  only  that  brave  sailer 
which  came  back  with  torn  sheets  and  battered 
sides,  stript  of  her  banners,  but  having  ridden  out 
the  storm  ?  And  so,  gentlemen,  I  feel  in  regard  to 
this  aged  England,  with  the  possessions,  honors, 
and  trophies,  and  also  with  the  infirmities,  of  a 

237 


ENGLISH  TRAITS 

thousand  years  gathering  around  her,  irretrievably 
committed  as  she  now  is  to  many  old  customs 
which  cannot  be  suddenly  changed  ;  pressed  upon 
by  the  transitions  of  trade,  and  new  and  all  in 
calculable  modes,  fabrics,  arts,  machines,  and  com 
peting  populations, — I  see  her  not  dispirited,  not 
weak,  but  well  remembering  that  she  has  seen 
dark  days  before  ; — indeed,  with  a  kind  of  instinct 
that  she  sees  a  little  better  in  a  cloudy  day,  and 
that  in  storm  of  battle  and  calamity,  she  has  a  secret 
vigor  and  a  pulse  like  a  cannon.  I  see  her  in  her 
old  age,  not  decrepit,  but  young,  and  still  daring  to 
believe  in  her  power  of  endurance  and  expansion. 
Seeing  this,  I  say,  All  hail!  mother  of  nations, 
mother  of  heroes,  with  strength  still  equal  to  the 
time;  still  wise  to  entertain  and  swift  to  execute 
the  policy  which  the  mind  and  heart  of  mankind 
requires  in  the  present  hour,  and  thus  only  hos 
pitable  to  the  foreigner,  and  truly  a  home  to  the 
thoughtful  and  generous  who  are  born  in  the  soil. 
So  be  it !  so  let  it  be  !  If  it  be  not  so,  if  the  courage 
of  England  goes  with  the  chances  of  a  commercial 
crisis,  I  will  go  back  to  the  capes  of  Massachusetts, 
and  my  own  Indian  stream,  and  say  to  my  country 
men,  the  old  race  are  all  gone,  and  the  elasticity 
and  hope  of  mankind  must  henceforth  remain  on 
the  Alleghany  ranges,  or  nowhere. 


NOTE 
1  Bv  Sir  A.  Alison, 


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305  De  Neve  Drive  -  Parking  Lot  17  •  Box  951388 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA  90095-1388 

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